


Look Both Ways

by mantisbelle



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Romantic Comedy, Car Accidents, Enthusiastic Consent, Eventual Smut, F/M, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, Imperfect Romances, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Medical Procedures, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:13:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 37,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22965214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mantisbelle/pseuds/mantisbelle
Summary: There are some pretty simple rules to running at night.Number one on the list is 'don't wear dark clothes, you will get hit by a car.'Wash would be a little more mad if the woman who hit him wasn't also pretty damn attractive.Carolina just wants to make sure he has help paying his medical bills.
Relationships: Agent Carolina/Agent Washington (Red vs. Blue), Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 71
Kudos: 97





	1. The One Where She Hits Him With Her Car

**Author's Note:**

> This fic will update on the last day of every month for Reasons which will make sense in time. 
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy it!

The door to Carolina’s little rented locker at the gym always seemed to stick shut when she tried to open it. She tugged at it, just hard enough that it made an uncomfortable creaking sound. When it finally opened, it only revealed Carolina’s backpack. The teal bag sat right where Carolina had left it, cleanly zipped shut. Just inside, she knew, there was a set of clean clothes folded away in a plastic bag waiting for her. The other items in the backpack were small, but just as important.

Her phone sat tucked against a tube of lemon scented deodorant and a small bag that contained gym-appropriate amounts of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. One text message from her brother waited for her, asking what she was up to the same way that he did every night. Carolina stared at the message for a moment before she let out a little sigh and left it on read, unable to come up with an  _ actually  _ interesting answer.

She had a feeling that Leonard Church Jr. wouldn't be interested in her taking a shower after a workout. She’d come up with something to tell him later, even if she needed to invent it.

All that she could need to get cleaned up before having to make the drive back to base where she’d end up crashing as soon as she got through the door anyways. Then she’d talk to Leo.

All in all, her remaining to do list could have been worse. 

Carolina stuffed her phone back into its pocket in her backpack and slung the aqua bag over her shoulder before she slipped off to the showers. The shower that she took was just enough to be sure that the sweat was mostly cleaned off and at least out of her hair. She could get a proper shower in the morning when she was on base. 

But even then, she chose the late hours at the gym so that she could enjoy a sliver of privacy when the time came to shower. By all means she should have taken longer, but Carolina didn’t want to, not really. 

It was late. She was tired. She just wanted to go home. It made it hard to enjoy the shower while she could when all she could think about was her bunk. 

Carolina washed herself, but in the end her shower only took close to five minutes before she was satisfied and slipping into a comfortable pair of sweats and a tank top. A light hooded sweater was thrown on top, since it had been chilly out when she’d arrived at the gym two hours before. She had no reason to think it would be any better when she went back out into the night.

There wasn’t any more time for her to waste though. Or at least, there was no reason for her to waste her time.

She was out the door and giving a quiet goodbye to the lone employee which was cleaning the gym lobby on the way out. The woman, who Carolina had been seeing there at the gym for several months but had never learned the name of only mumbled a response to her as the door swung shut behind Carolina. 

A light rain had begun to fall, leaving Carolina glad that she'd put on the hoodie. She rushed across the parking lot with her keys in her hand and stopped just beside her car where she fumbled to get inside before she ended up too wet.

Her car wasn’t the most fantastic vehicle by any stretch of the imagination. It was a decade old crossover vehicle that had a few more dents in it than Carolina would have strictly liked, even if the damn thing had been sold to her that way. Regardless of the cosmetics of the vehicle, it did the job. It was enough to get her from point A to point B, and in the end that was  _ really _ all that Carolina needed. 

Well, that and the insurance on it was cheap.

The truth was that if not for the fact that driving into town from Blood Gulch took close to fifteen minutes, Carolina would have instead ran everywhere. But as things were running quite simply wasn’t the best way to get around where they were. And thus she had the car, as unimpressive as it was.

But military bases were often rural for a reason. Having that knowledge didn’t make it any less frustrating having to drive so far. 

Of course, she  _ could _ have chosen to go to any one of the gyms back on base. But there was a great deal that could be said for the privacy that the little gym in Armonia provided. She never had to worry about running into anyone she bunked with there. She never had to worry about seeing her COs. She could just  _ exist  _ for a little while, provided she made it back to her bunk before curfew.

She’d never had a problem making it there in time for that in the past. There was no reason that she would start anytime soon. 

Her clunky old car started like a charm though, and within seconds Carolina was pulling out onto the road and beginning the drive back to Blood Gulch. Her muscles ached pleasantly, and her head was clear. She felt  _ good _ and once she was back in her bed, she'd feel even better. God, did she want to be in her bed.

The road back to Blood Gulch was sparse. Really, once you got out of Armonia the world seemed to turn into a near-desert. There was of course some tree coverage that followed along the sides of the roads, but Carolina had never seen  _ anything _ out there. There was a smattering of houses with “Rooms for Rent” signs posted in their yards up the hill, but that was about it. 

Save for a few squirrels, there never had been so much as a single sign of life. 

It was a bad habit. Carolina  _ knew _ it was a bad habit to do so, and yet she more or less stopped paying attention to what was around her once she was a certain distance past the city limits.

All she did was pay attention to the road. 

It seemed to stretch on forever, dark grey and yellow and white lines the only thing that existed aside from the rain that splashed against her windshield and the pavement.

In some distant in the back of Carolina’s brain which  _ was _ actually attempting to pay at least a minimal amount of attention to what was happening around her and her vehicle, Carolina was aware of a dark shadow on the side of the road. It even seemed to pause up ahead of her, judging how much time it had before it began to pass. 

Carolina realized what was happening too late, and hit the brakes on her car, but not without running out of time for both herself and the figure. The car skidded forward on the rain-slicked roads and Carolina realized her only option was to brace for an impact.

It smashed against the front of the car, rolling up onto the hood before rolling back down onto the pavement as Carolina came to an absolutely dead stop. 

Fuck, she’d just hit something. 

And Carolina  _ hoped _ to all hells that it was just a deer. Something animal. Something that wouldn’t end up plaguing her mind as badly as what she feared it was but couldn’t rule out. 

She unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed out of the car as quick as she could, not even caring to close the door to the car since it would give her at least a little extra light which wasn’t just coming off of her headlights. 

Sure enough, lying there just in front of her car, doubled over in pain and cradling an arm was a man. 

Carolina swallowed. 

“Hey!” She called to him as she rounded the car. “Are you alright?”

“Uh—” He picked his head up, blinking with tears of pain in his eyes. “No.” 

Carolina swallowed. “Sit up.” She commanded, already falling back on the bits of field training that she had. All she needed to do was see how bad it was, and then after she fully intended on driving this man to the hospital. It really looked like he needed a drive to the hospital. 

He did as she asked, and Carolina even helped to angle him so that he could rest with his back against the grill of her car. The man let out a little hiss of pain at the motion, but Carolina paid it as little mind as she could. They had to get past the big things first, and then they could deal with everything else. 

He wore a grey hoodie, with yellow stripes that it looked like he’d painted on himself. 

A quick spike of  _ rage _ rose in Carolina’s chest at the sight, but she did her best to press it back down. She needed to take care of him first. 

“Alright.” Carolina whispered to him. “Your arm—”

He looked at her, still dazed, and then down at his own injury. “I think it’s probably broken.” He admitted quietly. “Or at least fractured, I mean, the last time it happened was when I was 11, but—”

Carolina swallowed and looked back to her car. “One second.” She ordered. “Stay here. I’m going to get something so that we can at least splint it.” 

He stared up at her. “Should I start calling 9-1-1?”

“No.” Carolina mumbled, already rounding her car to get at the trunk. She winced when she realized her mistake. “I’ll drive you to the hospital. We can figure everything out once we’re there.” 

“Oh. That’s good, I don’t think I can afford the ambulance call anyways.” He let out a little breath. “Okay. I can—” He swallowed. “Probably left my phone at my apartment anyways so I couldn’t call my insurance ahead…” 

So he was up from the hill then, Carolina thought as she removed the towel from her gym bag out of the back seat. She rolled it quickly, just to be sure that it was stable enough to support the bones if there  _ was _ in fact a break. A quick glance around the trunk of her car presented her with the other half of her puzzle. 

Carolina pulled out the smallest tie-down strap she could find and walked back around to the front of the car. She knelt down next to the man. “I’m going to splint the bone.” She told him clearly. “And then we’re going to the hospital.”

“Oh.” The man let out a pained huff. “Okay. Never done this one before.” 

“I’m going to need your arm.” Carolina said, sure to keep her voice as steady as she could for his sake. Never mind that  _ she _ was panicking and would definitely have to make a few unfortunate calls later on in the evening. He needed to be taken care of first. “Do you have a name?”

The man carefully offered his arm, and Carolina eyed it. She helped him turn it slowly, just so that she could be sure where they needed to pay the most attention to the injury. Having located what looked like the worst spot, Carolina pressed the towel to it. 

“Yeah—” He held the towel in place when Carolina nodded at him to do so. “I’m uh— David.” He took a sharp, pained inhale. “David Washington. Everyone calls me—”

“Strapping it down.” Carolina announced to him as she began to pull the tie down strap into place. “I’m sorry.” 

And with that, Carolina began to tighten it down into place. The man let out a pained noise, but Carolina couldn’t focus on it. She needed to be sure that the injury was supported. Pain mattered, but she had to be certain she had it right. 

“Alright.” Carolina whispered when she was sure it was tight enough to do the job. “Do you think you can get up?”

“Yeah.” He said, already trying to lean forward but pausing when he got close to up. Carolina reached out, caught him by the shoulders, and offered him the support that he needed to stiffly rise up to his feet. 

He was practically panting in pain. “Uh, thanks.”

Carolina helped him over to the passenger’s seat and made sure that it was clear before he could get in. 

The man settled into place and hissed as he went down, clearly unprepared for the pain that came when he accidentally jostled the arm. Carolina seated herself in the driver’s seat, white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. 

“Ready?” She asked the young man, hopeful that he’d just say yes and make her life so much easier in the process. She just needed to know that it was clear enough that she could just drive. He looked over at her though, a pathetic look painted across his face. 

“Yeah.” He whispered. “Ready.” 

Carolina took it as the permission that she needed and began to drive, starting with turning the car around and then shooting off in the direction of Armonia as fast as she could possibly get away with. It wasn’t the best thing for either of them, but it was better than nothing. 

Thankfully, the young man didn’t try to start any conversations. Or maybe that was a  _ bad _ thing, since it meant that the strong possibility that he had a concussion wasn’t something to be discounted.

She just wanted to get him to the hospital, really. That was all that she wanted. 

“Okay.” She spoke up, since she really needed to keep him talking. “Do you have anyone you need to call?”

“Yeah.” The guy replied, quietly. “Roommates. I think they might not be home yet though.” 

Carolina looked over at him. “You said you think you left your phone back at your apartment.” 

“Pretty sure.” He replied. “It can wait for a bit, really. It’s okay—”

“It’s not ok.” Carolina said, mind racing for where her phone was. 

It wasn’t in her pocket. The pants that she’d put on didn’t have pockets. 

Which meant that it was probably in her gym bag in the back seat where she'd left it. In the panic of having hit a man with her car she’d forgotten to grab it. 

Damn. 

“I know.” He whispered though, breaking Carolina out of her own spiral. “I think I’ll be okay, it looks like just a break—”

Carolina swallowed. “It still shouldn’t have happened in the first place.” 

“Yeah.” He admitted, even though it was fairly clear that he was just doing what he could to try and keep a brave face. Trying to make  _ her _ feel better, which was perhaps the most fucked up thing since her father had died a few years back. “North’s going to be so pissed.” 

“Friend?”

“Roommate.” Wash said. “Kind of a… dad type.” 

Carolina knew the type. “My CO’s going to be pissed.” She muttered. “Since I was already running a little late to get back in time for curfew tonight. 

“Well, that’s good.” The man,  _ David, _ Carolina thought his name was replied. “At least we’re both getting crucified.” He paused though, considering. “CO?”

“I’m stationed up at Blood Gulch.”

“Armonia police academy.” David replied, with an almost bitter little laugh. “Pretty sure they’re going to stick me on desk classes for forever.” 

Carolina blinked. Police academy. 

That was actually… kind of interesting. 

There were still a lot of other questions that Carolina had though. Ones that she needed answers to if she was going to be able to sleep that night. She glanced over at David out of the corner of her eye as she pulled up to a red light, just outside the city’s limits. “Do you have insurance?” She asked him, volume dropping significantly.

“KInd of.” He admitted. “Not  _ good  _ insurance, but it’s the bare minimum to qualify.”

Not good. Not good at all. 

“Okay.” She whispered. 

“The hospital can’t turn me away though.” David spoke up just as Carolina began to drive again. “I mean, legally. So that's something.” 

“Right.” She said bitterly. 

She’d have to find a way to make it all up to him. Another dent in the front of her car wasn’t something that was going to kill her. She could live with it since it was just cosmetic. 

He was going to have medical bills to pay. 

David looked at her though, concern written clear on his face. “I’ve been in at General Doyle General Hospital before.” He muttered. “Weirdest doctors ever there. Of all time.” 

“Fascinating.” 

Could she even afford to help someone pay off medical bills? 

Probably not, in the long term. 

She took a deep breath. Focus on getting to the hospital, she told herself. Focus on having a concrete enough story that she could help the guy that she’d just  _ run over with her car _ explain his situation to a medical professional. Expect to have the police called to look into the matter. 

What a fucking mess. 

He squirmed uncomfortably. “I’m really sorry about all of this.” 

It made her jump hearing it. “Why are you apologizing?” 

“Dark clothes at night.” Wash sighed. “Stupid.” 

“I should have been paying attention.” Carolina countered. She was the one that had hit him with the car, there was absolutely no reason that he should have been blaming himself for it. “You’re fine.”

“That's not what my roommate’s going to say.” He let out an awkward little laugh, the kind that came when someone just really didn’t know what to say for themselves. “Still fucked up.” 

“Not as bad as I did.” Carolina said as she turned onto the road which had a sign indicating that the hospital was down it. She'd never been to General Doyle General Hospital before, but Carolina had seen it. For some reason, when it had been built it had been placed up on top of a hill. It at least made the damn thing easy to find. 

The guy sighed. “Yeah,” He mumbled. “I guess you’re right.” 

There was a silence that settled in as Carolina pulled into the parking lot, doing her best to follow the signs until she was outside of the emergency room. Finding an actual parking spot that she could  _ use _ was the hardest part, but once that was over with Carolina parked and let out a heavy breath. 

At her side, David shifted uncomfortably. “Okay, so—” He looked at the hospital, anxiousness written clearly across his face. “I guess I’m going in there.” 

“I’m coming with you.” Carolina replied. “It’s the least I can do.” 

He nodded and reached awkwardly to try and unbuckle his seat belt so that he couldn’t end up jostling his injured arm in the process. Carolina did the same, and even walked around the front of the car to open the door so that he wouldn’t have to. David climbed out and lingered by the side of the car, clearly uncomfortable and in what was probably considerable pain, but never complaining. 

Carolina opened the door to the back seats and searched through her gym bag for her phone. 

Once she found it, she closed the door and looked to David. “Alright.” She mumbled to him. “I guess we should go in now.” 

“Yeah.” He said, taking the lead and heading straight for the doors while Carolina followed closely behind him. The two of them got through the doors to the emergency room.

At the front desk there was a single nurse, wearing a set of purple scrubs and too-large glasses on his face. He looked up at the two of them and his eyes widened in alarm when he saw what was clearly an attempt at a field stint on David’s arm, along with the number of scrapes and already-forming bruises that Carolina hadn’t even noticed. 

She was pretty sure she wasn’t going to get to sleep that night at all.

“Um…” David spoke up. “Hi.” 

“Hi!” The nurse answered him. “Why don’t you come over here and we can get you checked in.” 

David gave Carolina an apologetic look. “Want to come with me, or—”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “That sounds good.” 

And the two of them went, they took their seats at a desk off to the side with the nurse who identified himself as Nurse Dufresne before he went straight ahead at taking down David’s information. 

She learned quickly that the man that she’d hit with the car was 25, his name was David Washington (and apparently went by Wash, which was surely the information that she hadn’t given him a chance to get out earlier) and that he had an A positive blood type. He also had a mild allergy to latex, which was information that Carolina surely didn’t need or even  _ want _ to know. 

Explaining the story behind  _ why _ Wash was there with a broken arm was incredibly awkward, but Nurse Dufrresne simply took a note of it and promised that they’d only call to press charges if Wash wanted to do so. Carolina was  _ beyond _ glad when Wash insisted that he really, really didn’t want to go down that route. 

Carolina still felt fucking awful. But Wash was getting taken care of, so Carolina could deal with it. It was a lot better than nothing happening.

The nurse hurried off to try and see to it that Wash had a doctor that he could see. 

It left Carolina alone with him, if only for a minute. 

“So… that was weird.” Wash spoke up, itching his nose with his free arm. “Um. Thanks for helping explain everything.” 

She let out a little sigh, unsure of what there was to really say for herself at that point. She wanted to see to it that Wash got help. She’d managed that much. 

“It’s the least I could do.” She replied, letting out a little sigh and brushing her bangs out of her face. “I’ll probably have hell to pay in the morning though.”

“Still.” He wriggled in his seat, checking the area where Nurse Dufresne had just walked off in in the hopes that he would get some sort of comfort out of it. “It’s really nice of you to… do all of this for me.” 

Carolina snorted, since the whole situation  _ was _ completely absurd in its own way. “It’s the least I could do, Wash.” 

He shot her a soft smile, and even looked like he was about to open his mouth to ask her something when Nurse Dufresne came in. 

“You’ll be seeing Doctor Grey.” He announced to the two of them. “As soon as we’ve gotten you in for a quick visit, she wants you in radiology so we can see the damage on your arm.” He paused for a moment. “You’ve never had reconstructive surgery on it, right?”

“Right.” Wash said, going a little pale. “Really hope I don’t have to change my answer to that question.” 

Dufresne forced a weird little smile. “I really am not qualified to tell you either way.” 

“Right.” Wash stood up and hesitated, looking back at Carolina. “I, uh…” He swallowed nervously. “Thanks.” 

“It's no problem.” Carolina replied, standing back and watching as Wash got nudged off to a booth for evaluation. 

She stood by for a long moment, and noticed a pad of paper and a pen sitting on Dufresne’s desk.

She reached for them both, seated herself, and left David Washington a note in the hopes that he’d see it and follow up on everything that had happened so far that night. 


	2. The One Where He Gets Her Name

Wash had ended up enduring hours worth of evaluations, assessments, re-evaluations, and re-assessments before he was finally put into a pressure cast with the announcement that he had a hairline fracture of the humerus and it would take a few weeks to heal. 

In fact the main, (if only) direction that Dr. Grey gave him was to keep it under low stress, even if that meant that he had to take a couple of weeks off until the injury was fully healed. He’d also been given a painkiller regimen that Wash didn’t particularly look forward to being on, but that was really it. 

His weeks ahead of him were going to be filled with him doing close to  _ nothing. _

In the end, Wash figured that it was a mixed bag.

On one hand, delaying his schooling wasn’t exactly something Wash was looking forward to.

On the other, it was a minor enough injury that he was let off with very little actual treatment. 

The main issue was that he wasn’t entirely sure that he could afford the little treatment that he got in the first place. To his knowledge even taking an ambulance for a minor injury that needed stitches usually cost a couple hundred dollars. 

If he had a couple hundred dollars, let alone  _ thousands _ at his disposal, Wash probably wouldn’t have been living with two roommates who were kind enough to let him bum rides off of them when the need arose for it.

Two roommates who were going to be absolutely pissed at him for the fact that he was coming home late with a broken arm. Wash could practically  _ hear  _ North’s smothering worry already. York would surely be more nonchalant about the matter, but probably also make fun of him for it.

Constantly. 

Relentlessly. 

If York didn’t go to teasing, then Wash had having his painkillers stolen to look forward to.

But he had to worry about getting home first. When he didn’t have a ride because he could only assume that the woman that had picked him up needed get back to Fort Church since he was pretty sure that’s where she was staying. 

A part of him was a little disappointed, but as it was getting close to three in the morning there wasn’t really so much that Wash could do to  _ complain _ about it. She probably would have found herself in a load of bullshit if she'd decided to stay the entire time, and then some more on top of that because of  _ why _ she’d been there in the first place.

Wash walked through the lobby, the same way that he’d entered the hospital since he needed to figure out a way home and he didn’t really have his phone on him. 

Calling North was a surefire way to get worried over to the point of harassment. But North  _ would  _ drop everything to get him home. 

It wasn’t worth it. He'd try a cab.

There really was no winning for him, Wash realized all at once. 

He was about to head to the desk to ask to use a phone when the still purple-clad Nurse Dufresne saw him from his desk. The purple-clad nurse shot to his feet and hurried over toward Wash with a similarly bright-purple post it note in his hand. 

“Wait!” He called to Wash, waving the purple post-it around like it was a flag. “I’ve got something for you!”

Wash blinked and turned to face the nurse, mostly because he  _ really _ didn’t know how he was supposed to respond at that point. 

Nurse Dufresne stepped right up close to him and offered him the note though. “When I came back from delivering you to Doctor Grey, this was on my desk! The girl you came in left it for you I think.” 

She’d left him something?

Wash looked down at the note and took it with his good hand. Whatever it was, the nurse seemed fairly well convinced that it was something important.

He slipped it into the pocket of his dirty pants. 

“Thanks.” He said, glancing at the phone. “Can I call a cab?”

“Of course!” Nurse Dufresne answered him. “If you come back with your receipt from the ride, the hospital will even reimburse you for it.” 

And yeah, that was  _ a lot _ better than having to deal with an ambulance in any way whatsoever. 

“That sounds great.” Wash said, forcing on a smile as the cheery doctor made the call for him. Wash waited by, and when he was told a taxi would be around in about five minutes, he made the choice to head out to the hospital parking lot to wait. 

His wait ended up taking several minutes, but sure enough a cab did pull up in front of the hospital for him. He climbed in, gave the directions back to his apartment, and made himself comfortable in the passenger’s seat as they drove to his place. 

When they arrived, Wash got out, checked that he still had his keys in his pocket, and hurried inside. 

After climbing the two flights of stairs necessary to reach his floor, Wash stepped into the apartment that he shared with his two roommates. 

He wasn’t entirely certain what he’d been expecting to find, but it wasn’t what he  _ did _ find. 

North was splayed out on the couch, his phone in his hand but also plugged into the extra-long charging cable that they had draped over the back of the damn thing because he’d  _ probably _ been calling around trying to contact Wash all night. 

York was also there on the couch, leaned back and his head rolled back onto the headrest behind him. He looked comfortable, probably like he’d either been enjoying too many drinks that evening, or because he was in and out of sleep and didn’t know what to do with himself. 

Most nights, Wash wouldn’t have worried. 

Most nights, Wash wasn’t arriving home with a broken arm. 

“Hey.” He said, closing the door behind him. 

North shot upright immediately, realizing that he’d just heard exactly what he was waiting for. His head snapped back as he looked toward the door where Wash was. At his side, York picked his head up and glanced back over his shoulder and the back of the couch lazily. 

“Hey, Wash.” He mumbled. “You’re home.”

“Yeah, he is.” North interjected, before Wash could get a word in edgewise. “What the hell happened to you? Where have you been?”

“You fucked up!” York shouted to him. He didn’t look back at where Wash was. “He’s already called in sick for tomorrow.” 

_ Shit. _

And well, he couldn’t really blame York for giving him warning for the absolute shitshow that he was probably about to have to endure. “Uh…” He swallowed and looked down at his arm. There wasn’t really going to be any fucking around on answering the question, was there? “Hospital?”

North blinked, his blue eyes wide. “What?” He pushed himself up onto his feet and climbed off of the couch, where York immediately stretched himself off on the couch and got comfortable. 

He rushed over to Wash. “What the hell happened?” He asked, voice dropping in volume in the same way that it always did when he was worried about one thing or another. “Wash, you have a broken arm.” 

“Uh.” He glanced back over at the couch. Why couldn’t this be easy? “A girl hit me with her car while I was out running.” He paused, taking a breath. “It’s actually just a hairline fracture.”

And  _ that  _ was enough to get York to get to his feet and pay attention to what was happening. His hair stuck out awkwardly to the side, and that all but confirmed that he’d been sleeping on and off on the couch, probably using North as a pillow while he was at it. 

_ “You got hit by a car?”  _ York managed to get the question out before North could. “At least tell me it was a cute girl and it was worth it.”

Wash sputtered, entirely unsure whether York’s line of questioning was actually any better than what North’s would have been like. Of all the things he had to go for when he asked the question for the first time, why did it have to be  _ that? _

Actually, why did it  _ always _ have to be that?

“I mean—”

“Wash!” North dragged Wash’s attention back onto him. “Is that where you’ve been all night?”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “She didn’t see me while she was driving, and accidentally hit me. The doctor says it’s just a hairline fracture—”

“A hairline fracture.” North deadpanned. “Have you called the academy yet?”

“Not yet.” Wash admitted, taking a place on the couch next to York. “I’ve got a doctor’s note. I’m sure they’ll get it.” 

“And the girl?” North asked. “Are you pressing charges?”

“No.”

York snorted. “So she’s cute.” 

“She drove me to the hospital!” Wash exclaimed. “She saved me a couple hundred dollars at the least!”

If North was willing to accept Wash’s counterargument, it was only with his  _ most _ fatherly, utterly disapproving frown. But instead North just let out a sigh, and shook his head. “If you insist—”

“I do.” Wash spoke up, since he knew the best way to deal with North was to just cut him off before he could really get himself going on the topic. “Look, I’m okay. It’ll be a month or so, and then I’ll be fine to go back to living my life as normally.”

York walked around the side of the couch, having decided then that he wanted to be with the rest of them. He leaned up against North, practically stretching himself so that he could attempt to get his head on North’s shoulder.

“North, he’s fine.” York mumbled. “Let baby Wash do what he wants.” 

It seemed to be all that was needed to get a sigh of concession out of North. 

“Okay.” North mumbled, pressing his hands to his eyes in a way that he always had done when he was stressed out over something. “Okay.” He dragged his hands down his face and let out a breath in a way that made it almost like he was trying to deflate all at once. “You’re sure?”

“I am.” Wash said. “She left me a note with her number, I think she wants me to call her in the morning so that we can talk things over. I know there's going to have be an insurance claim of some sort so I’m guessing that's what she wants.” 

York cocked his head to the side. “You leave any damage on the car?”

“Not that I saw.” Wash mumbled. “But it wouldn’t really surprise me if I did.”

North hummed along. 

York though, he just shrugged. “You’ll be fine.” He replied, stretching himself the way that he always did when he really just wanted to go to bed anyways. “Call the cute girl in the morning, see how that goes. Ask her out for coffee or something.” 

Wash felt his cheeks heat up immediately. The girl  _ had  _ been kind of cute, in truth. But he’d also been in too much pain to really think about it too much due to the fact that he had a broken arm and hadn’t been given a hefty dose of painkillers just yet. 

He looked between his two roommates. “Thanks.” He whispered to the two of them. “I’m going to have a lot to do in the morning, so I’ll… get to it.” 

“Good.” York mumbled back to him. “Night, Washy.”

“Night.” Wash sighed, and just like that he was getting a clap on the should as York slunk himself off to bed so that he could presumably get some sleep before he got to his job of locksmithing or… whatever it was that he did for money. 

As far as Wash was concerned, when it came to York’s income, it was probably for the better that he just didn’t  _ know _ . Because he was pretty sure that it was at the very least  _ mostly _ illegal. 

North still stood across from him, having only spared York a glance and then just stared across at Wash. 

“You’re sure you’re okay?”

“I am.” Wash answered him. He was absolutely certain that he was fine. “I’m going to call her in the morning and see what happens. I’ll be okay.” 

North nodded, slow, stiff, upset. Unsure of himself. “If you’re certain.” He sighed. “I’m going to bed.” 

“Okay.” Wash replied, and watched as his roommate went off to bed. 

He looked down at his arm, let out a heavy sigh, and dragged himself off to bed so that he could get some sleep himself. 

And holy shit, how he’d needed the sleep.

* * *

Wash didn’t actually call the girl first thing in the morning. In fact, he decided to wait for a few hours since he had absolutely not idea what the girl’s schedule looked like in the mornings. The last thing that he wanted to do was catch her at the worst possible time. 

He got up, went in for a meeting at the police academy to explain himself (and got more than a thorough reprimand for getting hit because he was doing something purely stupid. It was a reprimand that he couldn’t argue against, really.) 

When he got back to the apartment, York was there sipping what Wash had to  _ assume  _ was his third cup of coffee for the morning. Sitting around in his pajamas until he got a call to go unlock someone’s car in a parking lot somewhere, probably. 

Either that or until he had to sell someone something that was  _ definitely  _ illegal.

When it came to York, it was a definite case of whichever happened to come first for him. 

York looked up at him and gave Wash a little salute with his coffee. “Hey.” He greeted him. “Teacher know that you’ve been a bad boy yet?’

“First off,” Wash muttered, not really sure where to even start with York. “Gross. And second off, yes. I’m just expected to double down on my training once I’m back.”

York shrugged though, seemingly having resigned himself to it. “Better than nothing.” 

“Yeah.” Wash approached the coffee maker and went ahead with pouring himself his own mug of coffee, using a #1 Grandpa mug that York had given North for his birthday several months back. Needless to say, there was a reason that it didn’t get much use. “Now I just have to… make a lot of phone calls today.” 

“Sucks.”

Wash squinted at York, looking for something in his roommate’s disheveled appearance which could have at least begun to explain just what he was doing there at the apartment. “What are you up to?”

York shrugged again, clearly not too interested in what he was doing. Either that or he just didn’t have any answers that he could have given to explain himself. Knowing York, the latter was most likely the case. “Waiting.” He finally admitted. “North went to get groceries instead of his big boy job.” 

And that was  _ definitely  _ a good thing, considering the fact that Wash didn’t find anything quick to eat when he opened the various cupboards in search of something to have for his breakfast. “Right, he called in.” 

“Yup.” York sipped his coffee. “You should get your calls out of the way before he gets back.” He said, giving Wash a look. “Because if you don’t, you won’t hear the end of it.” 

It was a good point. 

Wash sighed. “I’ll get on that then.” With that, he took his coffee and his phone and went to his own room. 

He hadn’t managed to actually get that much sleep the night before. Getting used to not being able to turn onto his right side hadn’t allowed for a good sleep. That and worrying over the whole matter of how he was supposed to even begin to pay for the hospital visit and everything that was going to come later on. 

What a fucking mess. 

Sitting next to his alarm clock there was the same purple note that the girl had left him the night before. 

Wash swallowed, reached out, and unfolded it carefully. 

If you could call me, I’d like to help figure this out with you. 

I’m sorry about hitting you.

Carolina Church

555-4358

Carolina. 

Carolina Church, stationed out in Blood Gulch. 

It was a lot more than he had before, Wash thought as he began to plug in Carolina’s number into her phone. Hopefully she’d pick up for him when he called. 

It rang for a moment, then rang again. 

On the fourth ring, Carolina picked up. 

“Hello?” She asked, cautious. 

“Uh, hi.” Wash greeted him. “Um, it’s Wash. The guy you hit last night.” 

He heard her swear, but couldn’t catch what else she said along with it. It sounded like she was slipping away from a group of some sort so that the two of them could get around to talking.

“Hey, sorry.” Carolina greeted him. “Wasn’t alone. Sounds like my note got to you.” 

Wash stared down at the little purple note. “The nurse made sure to get it to me.” 

“Well, that's good.” She breathed out. “Look, I feel bad about last night. I wanted to see if I could do anything to help you out with what’s going on.” She paused for a moment. “If you want.” 

Wash swallowed, unsure of himself because it wasn’t entirely clear what Carolina was looking for. “Uh, what kind of thing?”

“Paying off your medical bills when they come in, for one.” Carolina said. “I get a decent amount of money from my service so I figured I could help out in that way.” 

Wash stared down at his arm in its cast. “That would be nice.” 

“I guess it would be easier to talk this over in person though, wouldn’t it?”

“Probably.” Wash said. “It would probably help if either of us had some sort of plan for how to do that though?”

There was a long pause. “Well, you have my number.” Carolina said. “I was going to say it probably wouldn’t hurt to try and figure it out over coffee.”

“Oh—” Wash swallowed. Coffee. Going out for coffee was a possibility, that was for sure. But then again, York had suggested coffee in a way that had been more in like with ‘ask the girl that ran you over with her car out for a date.’ Meeting was certainly the better outcome. “That could work.” 

“Okay.” Carolina mumbled. ”I have to go, but I’ll text you. Tomorrow sound good?“

Wash blinked. “Uh, yeah.” He replied. It wasn’t like he would have anything to do anyways. “Tomorrow sounds good.” 

“I’ll see you then.” Carolina replied. “See you tomorrow, Wash.” 

“Thanks, Carolina.” Wash said quietly back into the phone, feeling at least a little unsure of how he was meant to tread from there. “You too.” 

She hanged up on him, and Wash did the same. 

For a solid minute, he didn’t do anything but stare at his phone. 

What had his life become?


	3. The One Where He Meets Her For Coffee

Texting Wash over the course of the previous day had introduced Carolina to the fact that Wash apparently had a favorite coffee place in all of Armonia, possibly the world.

She herself hadn't exactly bothered to go ahead in trying some of the more local eateries, if only because there was a part of her that was always certain that she'd end up being shipped away sooner than later anyways.

The shop was a hole in the wall, squished into the back corner of what was apparently named Valhalla Shopping Mall. From the outside, there wasn't anything about it that made it look particularly special. Carolina could barely even find it aside from the worn painted sign which boasted the name of the establishment: _Redds._

The state of the sign made it seem like it had been hanging there for the better part of three decades.

Carolina steeled herself, reminded herself what she was there for, and went in.

When she stepped in, Wash was already there, sitting in a booth in a back corner with someone in what looked like an employee's tee.

He didn't notice her, apparently deep in conversation with his company.

Carolina rolled her eyes and made sure to approach Wash.

His company turned his head toward her just barely. "Donut, unless it's coffee, I don't—"

"Not… Donut." Carolina cut the man off before he could say anything else. "I was here to meet with Wash, actually."

On one hand, Wash bowed his head and ended up with his face resting in his one hand that he _could_ use. Embarrassed, probably because he now had to explain to his friend why he was meeting a girl for coffee.

Wash sighed. "Thanks for hanging out, Grif." Wash mumbled as he looked back up at Carolina. "Company's always nice."

"The chance to not have to do anything for work is always nice." Grif muttered, getting to his feet and taking a small plate that was piled high with breakfast foods with him, along with a mug of coffee. "So if you need anything, you can bitch at Simmons. He's the one that does all of the bitch work around here anyways."

"I heard that!" Another employee shouted from the back. "Get back here!"

Grif rolled his eyes and looked Carolina up and down.

Grif was a squat man, with what Carolina had to guess was a permanently grumpy sort of face.

"Yeah." He mumbled, apparently having just seen whatever he wanted. With that, he was slipping off back toward the kitchen which left Carolina to sit down with Wash so that the two of them could actually get down to the purpose of their meeting.

She slipped into the booth across from Wash, right where Grif had been moments before.

"So… you made it." Wash greeted her, sipping from his own mug of coffee. "I'm glad."

"Me too." Carolina set her bag down onto the seat next to her. Inside, she had all of the insurance information on her car that she could have possibly gathered. "How are you feeling?"

Wash shrugged. "I haven't gotten to really do anything since it happened. Which is fine, I've mostly gotten to sleep?"

And _oh_ how Carolina envied that idea, being able to actually get some sleep.

Maybe she needed to consider getting hit by a car sometime.

But then again, Carolina realized, it was entirely likely that she wouldn't end up with someone looking to help her pay off the bills after the hit.

"Sleep sounds good."

"It's so good." Wash sighed. "I mean, my roommate is always around but that's because he's…" His face screwed up, like he didn't quite know the best way to go ahead and describe his roommate. "I think he might be a drug dealer?" He shot a quick look toward the kitchen, like he was doing his best to make sure that his friend was out of earshot and dropped his volume significantly at the same time. "I mean, officially he's a locksmith I just… he works really weird hours."

Carolina blinked, not entirely sure _what_ Wash thought she was going to say to that. Clearly there was _something,_ but she had no idea where to even start. Especially considering that one of the first things that she'd learned about him was that he was in the police academy.

But presumably, if drugs paid part of the rent, he probably wasn't itching for an arrest anytime soon.

"I'm… sure that's interesting."

"My other roommate isn't as bad, but it's… weird."

"Sounds like it."

Wash let out a nervous laugh, clearly unsure of where to go from there. "So… this is awkward."

"It is." Carolina answered him, since it _was_ true. She hadn't been quite sure about what to expect from their meeting to begin with, but it certainly wasn't what she was getting out of it. She sat up straight though, reminded herself of the binder at her side, and decided to cut to the chase. "So I've been thinking about… what happened."

Wash blinked, skin washing out all at once. "Yeah?"

"I wanted to help you pay your medical bills." Carolina explained herself, as quick to the point as she could possibly manage with it. "If it's not too much trouble."

With two sentences, Wash's jaw was practically on the table in shock. In fact, he looked a _little_ bit like he was about to pass out. Carolina certainly hoped that he wouldn't since she hadn't asked whether or not there was any sign of him having a concussion. The absolute _last_ thing she wanted to have to do was drive Wash to the hospital a second time in one week.

"You…" He swallowed nervously, practically twitching. "You want to _what_?" His pitch rose in pitch to the point where it was swiftly approaching a screech. "That's insane!"

"And I can afford it." Carolina deadpanned with a shrug. "Unless you _don't_ want help paying for your treatment. Because I have no problem with walking, as long as that's what you really want."

Just like that, he clamped his mouth back shut since she'd clearly just gotten under his skin. His hands balled into fists as he clearly thought over the matter. Carolina was sure that he could use the help. If he wanted to refuse her offer, it was his choice and she'd accept it.

She just hoped that he'd let her help him. At least that way she could potentially get rid of the guilt.

"What about your car?" Wash asked, face bright red. "I mean, you need to—"

"I don't need to take it to a mechanic for a few dents." Carolina answered nonchalantly. "Besides, I promise you my car can't look much worse than it did before."

Wash blinked. "Your car looked bad?"

"Yeah." Carolina sighed. "I bought it secondhand. Case of form over function, and I'd rather have something I won't be heartbroken over if I need to send it on a ship overseas."

Understanding dawned on Wash's expression. "Ah," He sighed. "So I guess… there's not too much to worry about on your end then." He seemed to deflate a little bit. "You're just… doing so much for me."

"I hit you with my car." Carolina repeated with a little shrug. "I don't feel like anything will ever be enough."

He stared down into his cup of coffee, thinking it over. "So if I say yes…"

"I help you with your bills. After that, I'm out of your life forever if that's how you want it."

"And if I say no?"

"You never hear from me again." Carolina said in the most straightforward manner possible. "Simple as that."

He nodded, mouth open like he was looking for the words that he needed to give any sort of answer. "Okay." He mumbled. "So I guess we should start on… exchanging information for that, right?"

Carolina blinked. "We should." With that she turned and reached for her folder, with all of the relevant paperwork that they'd need to start clearing up the issue in the first place.

Wash sat quietly, and when it was his turn to help her out, he did what he needed to.

Carolina was grateful that it was at the very least an easy process.

It sure as hell could have been a lot worse.

* * *

Nearly an hour later, the two of them were close to wrapping up with everything that they needed to do. Carolina had finished her coffee, she was comfortable, and while she was going to have some paperwork to do later on down the line, things could have been worse.

"Thanks for meeting me, Wash." Carolina said as she stood up and slinged her bag over her shoulder just as she gathered the folder of paperwork up so that she could bring it back to base with her. "It wasn't bad."

"Um, yeah." He rose from the seat across from hers, reaching back into his pocket so that he could find his wallet and pay for his meal. It was an awkward process, since he had to reach awkwardly with his single good arm. "You know—" He sighed. "I think I wouldn't mind meeting you for coffee sometime. For not-insurance related reasons."

Carolina froze up, since that was far from what she would have expected to hear out of Wash. She'd asked to meet with him over coffee out of a necessity, but what he was talking about almost sounded like something else entirely.

She looked him in the eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that—" Wash froze up for a second, like he suddenly just had no idea what he was supposed to say to her. "I mean that I want to have coffee again sometime."

"As?" Carolina urged him on, just to be sure that she and Wash were actually on the same page about everything.

"Uh, as friends?" Wash said. "I mean, just to get to know each other, it doesn't have to be anything big—"

In truth, Wash _was_ kind of cute, in a dorky way. For once, Carolina understood what people meant when they threw around phrases like 'the boy next door.'

Carolina let out a little sigh. "I'll let you know the next time my schedule opens up." She offered Wash gently. "It doesn't sound like that bad of an idea."

His face lit up and Carolina caught the tiniest grin on his face, one that seemed to be all too earnest. "That sounds good." He looked over at the counter where his friend was waiting. "I guess I'll see you soon."

"You will." Carolina smiled at him. "I'll see you soon, Wash."

With that, she went to the counter and paid off her coffee before she left Redds feeling oddly rejuvenated in all of the strangest ways.

All in all, the meeting with Wash didn't feel like a complete waste of time. It was far from it, really.

She could work with 'not a complete waste of time.'


	4. The One Where She Meets His Friends (But Not Because He Wants Her To)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay on the update. I had to kind of fight my feelings on this fic due to certain current events.

“So what’s the special occasion?” North asked Wash. He stood on the opposite end of the kitchen, watching with some disinterest as Wash fiddled with the yellow colored tie that Wash had picked out to wear that day since he had a meeting with Carolina. 

Well, it wasn’t a meeting, really. 

It was a _date._

The tie was admittedly a bit much, but Wash wanted to make at least a somewhat good impression.

An impression that wasn’t solely tied to Carolina hitting him with a car, at the least. 

First dates, and all that.

“Uh…” Wash furrowed his brow. Tying a tie was a lot harder with one hand. It was already hard enough with two, how was he supposed to be able to do it with one? “I’m meeting someone. For coffee.”

North raised an eyebrow which was only visible with the naked eye from at least five inches away. “You’re… _meeting_ someone for coffee.” North said it with his usual deadpan, clearly not sure what he was supposed to think of anything that he’d just heard out of Wash. “And…” He blinked, mouth opening awkwardly as he looked for the words that he wanted to say. “And you’re wearing a tie?” One of his nearly-transparent eyebrows raised in confusion.

Wash stared down at the garment. “I feel more like it’s wearing me.”

“That's because it is.” York mumbled as he slipped his way into the kitchen with his own emptied out mug of coffee. If Wash had to guess, it was the third one that York had consumed that morning. “The tie is too much for a coffee date, Wash.” 

Wash shot an indignant look over in York’s direction, if only because he had a feeling that York was just going out of his way to be an ass about it. “North?” He asked for additional confirmation, just so that he could be sure. 

North let out an irritated sigh, which was a surprisingly common sound that he ended up making when it came to York. “He’s right.” He admitted. “It’d be another thing at Bleu’s, but since you’re just going for coffee…”

And yeah, point taken. 

Wash frowned and began to tug the tie off of his neck. At least he wouldn’t have to mess with it any more.

“Sorry.” Wash grumbled after a long moment. “I’m just nervous.” 

“Don’t be.” York replied to him, choosing then to lean up against the counter at North’s side, all too nonchalantly. Just a little too closely. “You’ve got friends on staff at Redd’s to cover for you. Worst comes to worst, Grif saves your reputation or something.” 

“Not comforting.” 

“You’ll be fine.” North cut in, waving York off in an attempt to get the conversation back to being at least somewhat focused. “I know it’s corny advice, but… just be yourself.” 

Wash nodded along. 

The truth was that it wasn’t really _good_ advice. Wash could be himself for days, but himself was also a notorious dork, a guy that got hit by a car because he’d chosen to go running at night without proper reflective gear, a guy that had a habit of just being a little too awkward. It was why York tended to run him out of the kitchen when there were house parties. Mostly during York’s yearly house party. 

Something about “not wanting to ruin the buzz.” 

Wash was certain that if not for York being nice about it, the actual reason was that York didn’t trust him not to go reporting the weirder activities that they got up to .

“Are you going to need a ride home?” North asked with somewhat surprising sincerity. “Because you know if you need to, you can just ask.” 

Wash shrugged. “I hadn’t thought about it yet. I guess that it’ll depend how it goes first.” 

And York, the fucking asshole that he was, ended up snorting into his coffee at that. “It depends how it goes—” He laughed, not even making the slightest effort to hide that he was laughing at Wash. “Don’t get your hopes too high, Wash.” York mumbled. “I mean, are you expecting to go home with her?”

“I was expecting to end up taking the bus!” Wash screeched back at his roommate, though it was for naught as York simply kept on laughing as he made his way out of the kitchen to do whatever it was that York did. It left him and North alone in the kitchen, and in all honesty, North’s genuine sincerity wasn’t much better than York’s brand of mockery. 

North just let out a forever-tired sigh though. 

“Like I said.” He mumbled, just loud enough that Wash would be able to hear him. “If you end up thinking you need a ride, you can just ask.” 

“Thanks, North.” Wash sighed. “I think my bus is going to be here in thirty—”

“I can drive you there.” 

“You don’t have to.” Wash mumbled. “Besides, it’d probably be better if I didn’t show up getting dropped off by one of my roommates.” 

“Yeah, you’re probably right about that.” North chuckled. “Either way. I hope you have fun.” 

“Me too.”

“She’s nice?” North stared across at him with too-cool blue eyes. 

“Yeah.” Wash confirmed. “She is.” 

“Good.” North said. “You might want to try finding a shirt without any stains on it, though.” 

Wash blinked, almost shaken out of his own thoughts as he looked down at his shirt and saw that sure enough, there was just a little stain on the chest. Not huge, but surely large enough that it could be noticed. 

“Thanks.” he mumbled, defeated, before he slinked off to his own room so that he could get a change of clothes. 

When it was time to leave for the bus, Wash left ten minutes early if only because he couldn’t stand being stuck in the apartment with his roommates anymore at that point. 

* * *

When Wash got to the little strip mall where Redd’s was tucked away, he was somewhat relived to see that the parking lot was mostly empty. Carolina's car was sitting in a spot closest to the coffee shop.

She was already there, and he felt horrible about because it meant that he had managed to show up late.

Of all the things that could have gone wrong, why did he have to be late already?

A certain sort of comfort appeared in the form of Grif, who stood just outside the door enjoying a cigarette and a cup of coffee for himself. He seemed relaxed, based on the way that he gave Wash a little nod of greeting.

"Hey." Wash looked up at Grif as he approached the curb. "How's it going?"

"Fine." Grif muttered. "I mean, Sarge is up my ass as usual and my job still fucking sucks, so there’s that. I’ve got Simmons covering for me." 

"Right." 

"Yeah." Grif sipped from his coffee. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Wash glanced back over his shoulder to see Carolina's car still sitting there, with a dent in its hood that he'd left there himself. Grif already fucking knew and he knew it too. 

God, what a fucking mess. 

"Meeting someone." 

"The redhead?"

"Yeah." Wash grumbled, feeling his face start to heat up in embarrassment. "So just..."

"Don't cockblock you." Grif snorted. "Got it." 

"You really couldn't think of any better way to say it, could you?" Wash questioned as he got close to the door and reached for the handle.

"Nah."

And yeah, Wash figured that was probably about right. He shook his head and let out a little sigh just before he pulled the door open. 

When he stepped inside, he immediately scanned the diner for Carolina's hair. At first he'd thought that he saw her, but it was just Simmons behind the counter at work doing... nothing, as usual. 

That just seemed to be the norm for all of the staff at Redd’s, though. From what Wash knew the one guy that actually did his job there was the guy that came in early to make sure they had fresh donuts and pie. Wash had seen the man once and he'd spoken only in Spanish the entire time. 

Aside from that, nobody else seemed to actually work there. Wash mostly liked the place because he knew most of the guys on staff and the food was cheap. 

He offered Simmons a quick hello and turned around until he found Carolina tucked away in one of the booths. She hadn't gotten coffee or food or anything yet, which was a comfort of sorts since it meant that he hadn't made that much of a mistake by being late for their date. 

She smiled up at him. "Hey, Wash." 

"Hi." Wash replied and slid into the seat just across of her. "Sorry I'm late." 

"I've only been here a few minutes." Carolina shrugged, completely relaxed. "How are you feeling?"

Wash glanced down at his arm, still wrapped up as it was. "It's getting better. It's mostly a pain because I keep forgetting that I can't use it." 

And to his surprise, Carolina let out a little snorting laugh. "Well, I guess that it could be a lot worse, couldn't it?"

"Yeah." Wash said, eyes flicking back to where Simmons was behind the counter. "You haven't ordered yet?"

"I figured I wanted to wait." Carolina replied. "Since that seemed like the polite thing to do." 

"Well, I can appreciate it." Wash sighed. "So I guess that we should--"

"He'll come over here." Carolina assured him.

"Right."

God, he was so fucking bad at this shit. How was he so bad at going on dates?

"Well, how have you been?" He asked, focusing on Carolina instead of the possibility that he could get a coffee order in. "I mean, with everything that you've been doing?"

Carolina blinked, surprised that he asked about her. "Oh, um." She brushed her bangs back away from her face so that they weren't in the way. "I haven't really been up to much--"

The little jingling sound that came from the door opening made Wash look up and what he saw enter the shop made his heart drop into his butt. 

Because of all the people that could be there to fucking spy on him, why did it have to be York? Because his fucking roommate had decided to come to Redd’s after him, probably because York had absolutely nothing else to do with his goddamn life and chose Wash's life as a source of entertainment. 

All at once, his skin turned bright red out in embarrassment. 

"Uh..." Carolina squinted at him weirdly, her back turned to the door. "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah." Wash mumbled as he watched York take up a seat in the middle of the shop. Seconds later, North was coming in through the door to join York. 

God fucking damn it. 

"What's--" Carolina squinted at him and turned to look back at the shop door as she tried to piece together what was going on. "Happening?"

"My roommates are here." Wash mumbled, slouching forward. "Probably to spy on us." 

Carolina's eyes narrowed into slits and Wash had to watch in horror as she turned her body so that she could look back and see who had just entered. Wash sat there, too stiff and caught York glancing at him from the table where he and North had sat down, with the single worst shit-eating grin that Wash had ever seen. 

He gave York a middle finger and ended up getting blown a kiss in response. 

What a fucking asshole.

Carolina's gaze lingered on their table, which ended up with North giving a resigned little wave. His face had turned lobster red, almost the same vivid shade as North turned when he had a sunburn. 

"Look--" Wash spoke up, quietly. "If you want we can get out of here, since this is--"

"Awkward." Carolina cut him off, seemingly just as annoyed with the situation as Wash was. "Are you sure that you don't want to get something to eat?" 

And it sucked because Wash did want to get something to eat. He'd even made sure to skip out on breakfast so that he didn't feel bad paying for a meal later on. 

But also, he really didn't want to have North or York peering in on him the entire time. Especially when he knew for a fact that the two of them were going to end up hanging it over his head later on. Specifically York would. North would end up taking the concerned parent point of view. That was probably how York had convinced him to come— by playing it up as playing chaperone. Because York sure as fuck wasn’t going to be acting as a wingman.

"We can get something somewhere else." Wash mumbled to Carolina, quiet enough that he was mostly sure they couldn't be overheard.

Carolina took a moment to consider, but within seconds she had snatched up her bag and was giving him an expectant look. 

"Where are we going?" She asked, smiling at him ever so slightly.

Wash got up and began to head for the door with Carolina following close after. 

He paused by the door and looked to Carolina. "I'll be right out." He told Carolina. Again, he got a weird look as a response. Wash just nodded over in the direction of North and York. Carolina gave a little smile of understanding and slipped out the front door. 

Whether she'd still be there in a few minutes, Wash wasn't sure. 

He turned and walked to the table where North and York were sitting. 

York tilted his head back slightly and smiled up at Wash. "What's wrong?"

Wash looked between the two of them. "You're _assholes._ Don't fucking follow me." He hissed out at them and then turned and headed out the door.

Thankfully, Carolina was still there waiting for him. Grif looked on curious, but made no comment as he sipped his coffee.

"So," She started. "Where are we going?"

* * *

As it turned out, where they were going was a local park where the two of them weren't as likely to get followed along with. Carolina hadn't objected to the idea of going for a walk at all, and had actually seemed a little bit enthused over the idea of it. 

Kimball Park was a surprisingly nice patch of green space in the center of Armonia, one where there had been great care put to keeping it cleanly manicured and with active plant growth. Wash knew that there was some corner of the park that had been dedicated to a proper garden, even though Wash had never actually seen it himself. 

Carolina had decided to drive the two of them there, and then after the choice was made to walk.

"So," Carolina asked him as the two of them began to walk. "Do your roommates usually follow you on dates?"

And god, that was the awkward part where he had to acknowledge that he didn't go on many dates, wasn't it?

Fuck. 

"I don't usually..." Wash began to try and explain himself but only found that he was falling short when it came to finding the actual words that he needed. "It's been a long time since the last time I went out for... this." 

Carolina nodded along. "Well, for what it's worth," She kept her head high as the two of them crossed onto the cobble walkway at the center of the park. "I'm not going to hold your roommates being nosy against you this time around." 

"This time." 

" _This time_." And she shot him a cocky grin, one that made Wash's brain flat line as he tried to comprehend that Carolina saying 'this time' meant that she was potentially open to seeing him again. For reasons that weren't related to him having a broken arm because she’d hit him with her car, specifically.

Wash felt his face heat up as the understanding settled in. "I'm still really sorry about them." He told Carolina truthfully. "It's still pretty out of line." 

"It is." Carolina sighed. "But also not really your fault. Unless you asked them to chaperone?" 

"Absolutely not." Wash chuckled. "Them showing up means that things can only go poorly." 

"I believe you." Carolina smirked. "What have you been up to since... needing to take time off."

Wash swallowed nervously. "Not anything, really." He admitted. And as shameful as it was for him to say it out loud, it was the honest truth. All that he was still considered to be fit to do was paperwork, which was far from thrilling. Showing up to classes on procedure was possible but there wasn’t anything else he _could_ do. 

Wash hadn’t signed up for the police academy because he’d wanted to end up with a desk job. He'd done it because he wanted to help people, not that it seemed like that was going to be happening anytime soon.

He swallowed, trying to think of a better way to address the matter. There wasn’t one. “I’m doing okay though.” 

Carolina sighed heavily, in a way that made her seem almost exhausted. Wash watched her out of the corner of her eye and was enthralled by the way that she slid her hands down into the pockets of her jacket. She looked comfortable and confident. 

Guilty.

“I really wish that I could do something to make it better.” Carolina said. “But I’m a little too busy during the week to help you.” 

Wash shrugged. “Most of the time I end up at home with York.” He frowned. “That’s the uh… the one that was missing an eye.” He shrugged. “He has weird work hours so most of what he does is stay at home.” Frustration crept up Wash’s spine at the thought of it. He and Carolina should have still been back at Redd’s, enjoying pancakes and sharing coffee. Not at the park because his roommates couldn’t leave him alone.

“He’s usually not that bad.” Wash amended. “He’s just mostly an asshole all the time.” 

Carolina nodded along, smiling softly. “Well, I’m sorry.” She said. “Would you prefer to know what I do with my days?”

If everything that Wash knew about the military told him anything, not really. There was a reason that he’d chosen the police over the military, and he wasn’t really sure how he was meant to explain it. “Sure.” He said with a slight shrug, careful not to jostle his arm too much. “I guess that you’ve got things going on.” 

Carolina rolled her eyes. “I spend pretty much my entire day working out.” Carolina explained. “Always running and practicing and going to the range to make sure that I don’t end up getting rusty.” She shook her head, her red hair swaying with the motion. “If the same thing had happened to me, I think that I’d be just as clueless about what to do with myself as you are.” 

Wash opened his mouth to say something, but realized all too quickly that he didn’t know what he was supposed to say. Instead he just ended up smiling over in her direction. 

And god she looked pretty. It even looked like she’d gone out of her way to put on a little bit of makeup on, just a little bit of eyeliner that was slightly smudged. 

He would have definitely been overdressed if he’d worn the tie like he’d been planning, Wash decided then and there. 

Carolina stopped dead in her tracks though, stood up tall, and looked past him. “You still want to try and get something to eat?” She asked out of nowhere. 

Wash did the same as she had, slowed down to a stop and turned his head as he tried to figure out what she was looking at. He turned slowly and realized what it was all at once, a single pizza stand that looked like it was selling by the slice and had bottles of soda and water. 

Pizza had never been a bad breakfast in the past. Although, historically, cold pizza for breakfast was more of a matter of leftovers and laziness than something Wash went out of his way to get.

“Sounds good to me.” Wash said, already turning slowly so that he could head for the stand. Carolina matched pace with him, even as he began to rifle through his pockets in search of his wallet so that he could pay for at least his own food, if not for Carolina’s as well. It would only be a few dollars by the looks of it. 

Carolina stepped up and made the orders before Wash could get a word in edgewise. Within two minutes he was forking over all of eight dollars for each of them to have two slices of cheese pizza and a bottle of soda. 

It may not have been what he’d originally had in mind for the date, but it wasn’t so bad. 

He and Carolina made themselves comfortable on a park bench near a little pond where a few geese had made themselves at home. The birds floated by slowly, just as Wash leaned back into the bench. 

“I’ve got to say, Wash.” Carolina said, picking at the crust of her pizza. “For dates that went completely to shit from the outset, this isn’t so bad.” 

“You think so?” He asked, looking down at his own little plate of food. Maybe it _wasn’t_ all that bad in the long run, but he was still annoyed by the outcome of it. It shouldn’t have even been able to fall apart in the ways that it had. He’d have to talk to North and York about it later, but even then…

Why was he so focused on them when Carolina was right there beside him?

“Yeah.” She smiled, watching the geese as they floated along, as content with the world as anything. “I can’t remember the last time that I had a date that went even a quarter of as well as this one has.” 

And… that wasn’t something that Wash had even considered. He didn’t even _know_ the last time he’d been on a date (okay, maybe _that_ was a lie. It had been with York before he’d moved in, and it had been a horrible idea. He only regretted it completely.) 

Carolina didn’t seem like she should have had any trouble getting dates at all, and yet there she was. 

“Neither can I.” Wash finally admitted. “I still feel bad.” 

“Would you feel better if the next one went better?” Carolina prodded him. 

It took half a minute for the _next one_ part of her question to sink in.

It was how Wash found himself stammering and struggling to find the right words to answer Carolina with. He swallowed hard and looked over at her, directly. She stared back at him with bright green eyes that almost managed to feel radioactive. 

“I could.” Wash admitted after a moment with a shrug. “If you really want that.” 

She smirked. “I think that I could.” Carolina said, tilting her head back slightly. “Maybe we could even actually eat where we plan to.” 

Wash felt his face heat up and turn red. So red that he probably looked like a lobster, or something similar. Maybe even the same color as Carolina’s hair was. 

“Imagine that.”

Carolina smirked. “I already have. And I’m saying that we should try this again. Maybe without your roommates getting involved.” She eyed him. “You can keep a secret, can’t you?”

And yeah, he figured he could try. 

He nodded, since he wasn’t exactly able to find the words that he really needed in that moment.

A sly grin spread across Carolina’s face, sharp as a knife and two times as bright. 

“How does Saturday sound?”

* * *

Wash got home to the apartment late, if only because he’d decided that getting groceries on the way home from his and Carolina’s date was as good of an idea as any. It had only gotten complicated when he realized that he could only carry a basket full of groceries at a time, and that he would have to put it down every time he wanted to get something from the shelves. 

It was how he ended up coming home with only two bags of groceries, and then having to knock on the door to his own apartment with his elbow because otherwise he couldn’t get in. 

Thankfully, North was there to open the door for him. 

“Hey.” North greeted him quietly, just before he reached out to take the bags from Wash so that he could go about putting everything away in their designated spots. “I was starting to worry about you.” 

“I’m fine.” Wash answered, unable to find the words for how it kind of stung that North was so insistent on helping him. He could handle himself, he didn’t necessarily _need_ the help. 

Mostly, he wished that his roommate would start asking to help instead of just doing it. 

At least that way he could say _no._

“Good.” North said, leading the way to the kitchen which had been cleaned at some point during the day. Conspicuously absent was York. 

Wash leaned against one of the counters and watched silently as North began to put food away, starting with the ice cream that went straight into the freezer. 

“I’m sorry about earlier.” North said, his voice quiet. “It was… a bad idea.” 

“You think?” Wash retorted, his mood having instantly soured. “Why did you even—”

“York convinced me.” 

“Of course he did.” Wash muttered. “It went well, by the way.” He ended up crossing his arms, hopeful that he could at least make the displeasure with the entire situation radiate off of himself to the point where North couldn’t just ignore it anymore. “Since you were apparently so curious.” 

North paled, ghostly white. Transparent. Probably because of all of that guilt beginning to set in all at once. 

Sometimes, and Wash knew that it was wrong to speculate on, he had a feeling that North was just looking for someone that he could look after in the same way that he looked after his sister. But ever since South had decided to enlist it had left North in a weird state where he looked for it in everyone. 

Since Wash was the youngest in the apartment, he became North’s surrogate little sibling. 

He didn’t enjoy it by any means. Not one bit. 

North though, he let out a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry.” 

“Good.” 

“Are you planning to see her again?” North asked, keeping his voice down. 

Wash eyed him, considering. “Is York here?”

“Got called off to work.” North answered, and that filled in a lot of the blanks in the situation. Of course York was off doing one of his many odd jobs. “No idea when he'll be back. It sounded urgent.” 

And that was a relief of a sort. Not a good one, but a relief nonetheless. 

All at once, Wash decided to give in and try to explain himself. North would probably get it, even if he’d end up being horribly condescending about the matter. 

He swallowed nervously. “We’ve got another date next week.”

“Oh.” North’s nearly-invisible eyebrows shot up towards his hairline in surprise. “It managed to go that well?”

“Somehow.” Wash said. “No thanks to you and York.” 

And North winced, and Wash couldn’t help but to think that North completely deserved it. In every single way, North deserved to feel embarrassed about it. But North did seem to relax, at least a little bit. “I won’t tell York.”

“Thanks.” Wash sighed. “It would mean a lot if you didn’t. If only because it means he’ll leave me alone about it later.” 

“Got it.” North paused for a moment as he looked into the freezer where he was in the process of putting things away. He seemed to hesitated for a moment longer. “You’re really interested in this girl?”

“I am.” 

North shrugged, shoving something in the freezer off to the side. “Have you thought about inviting her to York’s halloween party?” 

Just like that, with those simple words, Wash felt a lead weight drop into his stomach. One that was so heavy that he couldn’t just ignore it, one so horrible that he couldn’t forget it. 

Because while Wash _knew_ that North was just trying to be nice, it was a horrible idea. 

The thing was that they both knew exactly what York’s Halloween Parties were like. Wash knew them as the pits of debauchery that they were. He knew that they were a place where the costumes seemed to get skimpier and skimpier by the year. He knew for a fact that at some point during the evening York would disappear with Kaikaina Grif, and then they’d both re-appear high as kites half an hour later. 

And then at some other point, York would disappear with North, and they’d _all_ pretend like nobody knew where they were or what they were doing. 

Needless to say, York’s halloween party was more of a thing that Wash tolerated than participated in. After the first time going, Wash had learned that it tended to get a little too weird for his personal liking. 

He swallowed hard. “I think I’d have to think hard about it.” 

“I understand.” North sighed. “Just wanted you to remember that it’s technically open invitation. York probably wouldn’t fight you on inviting her is all.” 

“I know he wouldn’t.” Wash said. “You just… know how it gets.” 

“Yeah.” North confirmed. “Yeah I do.” 

Wash swallowed. “Thanks for this, though.” He said quietly. “I’ll think about it.” 

“Right.” North said, his voice still down. “Sorry about earlier.”

Wash was about to head down the hall to his own room when he was made to pause. He looked back over his shoulder at North. 

“I don’t forgive you.” He said, and he absolutely meant it. 

Maybe some other time he would. But in that moment, Wash didn’t. He didn’t forgive York either. 

Thankfully, all that Wash heard out of North before he went to his own room was a quiet “I know.” 


	5. The One Where He Runs Into Her

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Technically a little early with this chapter. Consider that my attempt to make up for being late the last few times.

The days where Carolina had to find herself subjected to the usual mundanities of life weren't _fun_ ones. Actually, if anything, they were the most frustrating days that she had to live through because they were the ones where she couldn't just brush everything off and hold her head up high.

Either that or maybe she found doing errands which were often boring at best and downright frustrating at worst to be comparable to what she imagined experiencing the heat death of the universe in real time would be like. It was like getting a red hot needle in the eye, or airport security, or even having to attend family dinners with people that she hadn't gotten along with in actual _decades._

It was how she found herself, feeling oddly fidgety as she stood in line at the bank waiting so that she could at least cash her paycheck and move on with the rest of her day.

Or rather, she _would_ have done those things if not for the fact that she was stuck in a line at a bank where there was one working teller, who was busy with possibly the least comprehending person when it came to bank policy on the planet.

And it wasn't as though she could just get her pay in cash. Not without going to the bank first.

The door chimed behind her, but Carolina didn't pay it any mind. She just shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot as she waited. Once she was done at the bank she would have to go to the post office to pick up a package and _hope_ that the place ran on semi-normal hours so that she wouldn't have to make the exact same trip later on. She could have had her mail go through the base, but having a P.O. Box to her name gave her the excuse to get away from base for a little while.

Someone shuffled into line behind her and it wasn't until she heard an awkward clearing of the man's throat that she realized that someone was trying to get her attention for some reason.

Carolina looked back over her shoulder and saw that it was Wash standing there behind her, the tips of his ears red with embarrassment.

Well, talking was better than waiting.

"Hey." Wash greeted her. "What brings you to—"

"First National Credit Union?" Carolina finished for him, smirking. "I have a paycheck to cash." She glanced forward to the teller's desk, where the troublesome customer was beginning to shuffle away. Only four more people to go before she could take care of her own business. "What about you?"

Wash sighed. "I need to get my rent in cash." He explained. "Our landlord is weird and doesn't accept direct payments so…" His voice trailed off. "It's not exactly ethical."

Carolina blinked, at least a little bit surprised by what Wash's answer was. It certainly wasn't one that she'd expected. "I see." She let her eyes flick up and down over Wash's form before they settled on his arm, which was still in a cast but at least out of the sling that it had been in previously. "And how's that doing?"

Wash looked down at his own arm and let out an awkward sigh. "It's feeling a lot better than it was. I mean, one of my roommates is being really weird about me using the painkillers I was given so I guess that's a huge relief."

Carolina raised an eyebrow. "And do you have _any_ idea as to why that could be?"

Wash shrugged, shifting awkwardly in his own way. "Well, it's York and…" His voice trailed off. He picked up his head and glanced around the bank nervously, clearly afraid that the two of them were going to get listened in on for some reason. He frowned and stepped in close, close enough that he could whisper the rest of his thought to her without the two of them being overheard. "I'm pretty sure he wants to sell what's left over."

Carolina blinked. "You're really certain that's his side job, aren't you?"

Wash sighed. "Yeah, he gives me a lot of good reason for it." He said. "Not that I'd report him or anything. He's paying a something like two fifths of our rent, and I'm not really looking to pay more than I already am."

" _Two fifths?"_ Carolina questioned, because it was such an odd ratio for Wash to bring up. She would have imagined that between him and his two roommates they were paying a third each. To hear that at least one was paying more than that was somewhat of a surprise. "That's—"

"It's because he works." Wash cut her off. "It's the arrangement we have. York and North pay 40% of the rent each, but sometimes North pays more since York's work is unsteady. I pay less because I'm a student but make up for it in chores."

It made sense, in a way, but Carolina couldn't help but think that perhaps the arrangement put more pressure on Wash and his roommates than would have been there otherwise. "That seems like it works out pretty heavily in your favor."

Wash shrugged. "It's probably actually best for York out of all of us, but none of us have any problem with it. North tends to be a little bit _too_ helpful so he really doesn't mind paying extra. York does what he can but me and North get that his job is… weird."

"And possibly illegal?" Carolina probed jokingly.

"Yeah, that." Wash mumbled as the line shuffled forward yet again. "I promise they aren't so bad usually." He picked his head up, cheeks reddening because he realized how much it kind of sounded almost like he hated his two roommates. "Usually they aren't… completely awful."

"I believe you." Carolina said, even if she wasn't entirely sure how much Wash believed his own words. There seemed to be a good deal of resentment towards his roommates, for better or for worse.

Of course, she knew them about as well as she knew her own bunk mates so it wasn't as though Carolina could _judge._ If anything, it was entirely possible that she knew Wash's roommates _better_ than she knew her bunk mates, but that was simply because sharing a bunk only was an indication of an agreement to more or less stay out of each other's ways.

Wash put on a nervous sort of grin. "Really, they aren't!"

"I didn't doubt you!" Carolina replied. "It's just that… well, I haven't gotten the best first impression of them." She hesitated for a moment, since there was so much more that she could have said but she didn't _want_ to say any of it. Not in a bank at least, but if she and Wash were _really_ going to be seeing each other, it was all stuff that was going to have to come up eventually.

Maybe the best thing would be to just rip the band aid off before it could become too much of a problem later on.

Before she could even start to address it though, a blessing of sorts came in the form of a second teller opening up a window at the bank. Carolina shot an apologetic look at Wash and headed straight over so that she could get her own business taken care of.

It only took a few minutes before she was done, her paycheck cashed and her on her way out of the bank.

When she saw Wash take her place where she'd just been though, Carolina reconsidered.

Maybe talking wasn't the worst idea.

She waited patiently by the door, and when Wash finally made his own escape from the line he noticed her and almost seemed to perk up a little bit over it. Carolina briefly considered whether or not he'd been expecting for her to leave him there alone.

"You're… still here."

Carolina shrugged. "I figured that the least I could do was offer you a ride to wherever you're going."

Wash's face got red. "That would be…" He hesitated a long moment. "That would actually be great."

And with that Carolina simply smiled and led the way out into the street where her car had been parked. Wash approached the passenger's side without any question, and once the car was unlocked both of them were slipping inside and making themselves comfortable.

Wash relaxed into his seat. "Thanks." He said quietly.

"It's no problem." Carolina said. "I'm guessing you were headed home?"

Wash shrugged. "I _was._ " He answered her, "but I was also thinking about getting some groceries."

And that was something that Carolina could have afforded to do herself, at least so that she had something to eat of her own that didn't come at a mandatory mealtime. "Where do you prefer to go?"

Wash shrugged. "Doesn't really matter." He said, but then hesitated another moment. Carolina waited patiently, since she knew that he was probably just getting tripped up asking for what he wanted. If _that_ was going to be a problem, Carolina fully intended on breaking him of that habit. "I mean, Aldo's is cheaper though."

"Aldo's it is then." Carolina said, putting her car into drive and beginning the trip over.

Wash relaxed into his seat again. "So you've never really talked about your situation." He said out of nowhere. "I mean, do you live alone, or—"

Carolina smirked. "I live on base. Three bunk mates, but I don't know any of them particularly well." Her brow furrowed. "Connie, South, and Vera."

Wash blinked. "South?" He echoed, like it wasn't completely weird that he had a roommate named _North._ "How have we never met before?"

Carolina furrowed her brow in some confusion. "What do you mean?"

"North and South." Wash said. "They're… twins. He lives in the city because it means he gets to be closer to his sister."

And _that_ explained a lot. And also why Carolina had never been exposed to North before her and Wash's date, because South was just as bad as she was about keeping everyone and anyone at arm's length.

Well, aside from Connie, but _that_ was an issue Carolina didn't even want to get into because it would potentially lead to one or two fraternization reports that didn't need to be done. She and Vera turned a blind eye to it, and that was that.

"Huh."

Wash shrugged. "You could mention it to him sometime. Or to her."

"I'm sure she'd _love_ to hear that her brother chaperones his roommates on dates." Carolina laughed, if only because she could already imagine how South would be absolutely _fuming_ at the idea of it. If only because she'd heard about him pulling the _exact same shit_ on her when they'd been back in high school.

Wash laughed. "Yeah, she'll probably make sure he has hell to pay for it."

"So I _should_ tell her?"

"No!" Wash protested. "I don't want to deal with it any more than you do." His voice slipped off as a soft expression settled on his face. "I mean, I _could_ have ended up on base with you too."

"And what stopped you?" Carolina teased gently. "Aside from a broken arm."

Wash winced. "I punched a commanding officer in boot camp." He explained. Carolina was _immediately_ taken aback, because that hadn't been what she would have pictured for Wash _at all._ "Look, I used to have a lot of anger issues and I've been doing a lot to deal with it, and—"

Carolina reached over and set a hand on top of his in the hopes that it would be able to calm Wash down at least a little bit. Shit, she had her own set of issues too and if he had gotten help and tried to deal with it, what right did she have to care?

"You don't have to explain it to me." Carolina cut him off. "I _wish_ I punched my drill sergeant in boot camp. It's like they purposely choose the worst people for it."

"Right?" Wash exclaimed.

"So being a cop is easier?" Carolina asked.

Wash shrugged. "Kinda. You're dealing with a lot of wannabee heroes that are actually just assholes. Some of them have good intentions but…" He blinked, voice trailing off for a moment. "Although I know some would just say that all police are awful. It's a flawed system, but—"

Carolina waved the concern away. She was a part of the military industrial complex, as was her entire family, for fuck's sake. She had no right to judge Wash.

Besides, he seemed to be coming from a genuine desire to help people. At least, it seemed that way.

She sighed. "I don't really know if I plan to re-enlist." She explained about herself. "I know that the military is flawed."

Wash nodded along, understanding. "So why'd you choose to enlist in the first place?"

Carolina sighed. "Think of it as a family tradition. Just about everyone in my family has been military at some point. Mother, father, brother. And then further back."

"Shit." Wash said. "Did you want it?"

"Kind of." Carolina said. "Back then at least I did. I think I had ideas about being like my mother, or that it might make—" She cut herself off. "Yeah. Let's just leave it at yes." Better not to get into the mess that was her family _too_ much, like how she had partially enlisted because it could potentially get her father to notice her.

Wash stared at her, confusion written clear on his face. "Got it." He said finally. Message received, thankfully.

Carolina sighed. "I just don't know what I want to do next. No offense, I think being a cop might drive me crazy. And civilian life is boring."

Wash let out a little laugh. "There's always the fire department."

It got a little snort out of Carolina. That _was_ a good point, although she wasn't _entirely_ sure that charging straight into fires was quite her speed. "You want me to be a firefighter?" Carolina teased Wash. "Is that what this is about?"

He turned fire-engine red at the suggestion. What he was picturing, Carolina didn't _quite_ know, but the suggestion was certainly enough to mess with him a little bit. She didn't need to go on about calendars to know that the message had been sent properly.

"I mean—" He sighed. "You _could_. But maybe they'd confuse your hair with the fire."

"Don't want that." Carolina joked, turning into the parking lot for the grocery store. She hesitated a long moment, not sure whether or not she should offer Wash a ride back to his apartment after.

He got out though, seemingly unaware of what she was thinking. That was probably a good thing, Carolina thought. He closed the door and stretched. "You coming in, or—"

"Nah." Carolina answered, telling the truth. "I had a few other errands that I needed to run."

Wash blinked, his face getting a little red. "Right." He said quietly. "So I guess that I'll see you around then?"

Carolina shrugged. "I guess so." She answered him, smiling back at Wash. "I'll see you. Or you could text me if you wanted to."

He nodded. "Guess so." And then like that, he was heading off toward the grocery store so that he could go about the rest of his day.

It was for the best that Carolina got on with hers as well.


	6. The One Where She's Invited To Dinner

The phone on her bedside table rang loudly. To be completely accurate, it rang loudly enough that Carolina could hear it from the bathroom, as well as South complaining about the fact that it was ringing in the other room. Carolina swore, finished up what she was doing, and hurried out to the room where her three bunkmates were going about their own morning routines and possibly plotting her death.

She reached her phone just as it stopped ringing. Carolina eyed it and lifted it up, seeing that the number wasn’t one that she recognized at all. 

It began ringing again in her hand. 

Carolina rolled her eyes and accepted the call. 

“Hello?” She asked, unable to take the sharp edge of frustration out of her voice. “Who is this?”

“Hey!” The voice on the other end answered. “Yeah, you don’t know this number,  _ shit.” _ He started, and Carolina struggled to place the voice. It was familiar, but also somehow not. “This is uh… This is York. I’m Wash’s roommate?”

Carolina blinked. “Why do you have my phone number?” Might as well cut straight to the point. She couldn’t exactly think of any  _ reasons _ for York of all people to be calling her. “And why are you calling me at six in the morning.” 

“Stole it out of Wash’s contacts.” York said easily, something creaking in the background of his phone. “But don’t worry about that, I promise I’m calling with good intentions. And I uh… just got in from a job. I woke you up didn’t, I?”” 

“You didn’t wake me up.” Carolina grit out. “So why are you calling me?”

“So.” York finally seemed to decide to cut to the chase. He sounded tired, maybe like he couldn’t let the issue sit much longer than it already had. “Basically. North’s putting together a little get together thing tonight. It’s the last chance for a good cookout of the year since it’s starting to get cold. I wanted to let you know that you’re invited. Consider it an apology.“ 

Carolina blinked. For all of the possible reasons that York could have been calling her for, it certainly wasn’t the worst one. That wasn’t to say that she was really  _ happy _ that York stole her number by breaking into Wash’s phone in some way, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. 

Although…

“Does Wash know that you’re inviting me?” Carolina deadpanned. 

“Nah.” York said. “I mean, I mentioned that he should invite you but I figured that he hadn’t yet. I just wanted to make sure that it got through to you, and—” He paused. “The point is that you’re getting invited to free food. There’s going to be free food. And beer and shit. Mostly free food.” 

“Right.” Carolina answered, not entirely sure that she wanted to come along. She didn’t even know how much of a crowd there would end up being there. The way that it sounded was like they were just inviting just about everyone that they knew to their little get together. “I’ll think about it.” 

“Yeah, well.” York said. “It’s going to be a good time. And I’m sure he’d be glad to get a chance to see you.” 

“Right.” Carolina mumbled, still not entirely sure that going through with the invitation was the best idea. “Thanks for the invitation.” 

“Eh, it’s no problem.” York answered. “Hope you’ll show up. You know where it is, right?”

“Yeah.” Carolina answered, catching South’s glare. “Goodbye York.” 

“Bye.” With that he hanged up. Carolina let the phone drop down to her side. 

There always had to be something, didn’t there?

“That better not be who I thought it was.” South said, leaning back against the wall as she sat on her bed. 

Carolina let out a sigh. “As in your brother’s roommate York?” She asked, dropping down onto her own bed. “Yeah. That’s the one.” 

“The fuck are you talking to him for?” South prodded. “Because if I have to rip his balls off, you know I will.” 

“He was inviting me to a party on account of their third roommate.” Carolina explained. “Since I’ve been kind of… seeing him. Sort of.” Saying it out loud made the reality of it begin to sink in, in ways that Carolina had never really felt before. They were seeing each other. They were practically dating, and she still felt like she knew fuck all about Wash, and like he knew next to nothing about her as well. 

That couldn’t have been good, could it? What if that mutual lack of knowledge was going to end up biting both of them in the asses later on. 

South just let out a low whistle. “You’ve been going out with Wash?”

“Yeah.” Carolina confirmed. “I guess that's what you’d call it.” 

There was a pause, South considering something, and then—

“So you’re the one that hit him with a car.” South leaned in, grinning at Carolina. “ _ Holy shit _ .” 

“Don’t tell anyone!” Carolina protested, guilt having immediately washed over her face. “It was an accident, and I’m helping him pay the medical bills anyways.”

“ _ You hit him with a car! _ ” South laughed. “Holy  _ shit _ that's funny. And he still wants to date you?” 

Carolina rolled her eyes, deciding not to dignify South’s last question with a response. “And I’m guessing you heard this from your brother?”

“Yeah.” South snickered. “So what did he invite you to? Not the Halloween party, I hope.”

Carolina hadn’t heard  _ anything _ about invites to a Halloween party. Based on the way that South mentioned it, she wasn’t entirely sure that she even wanted to know. 

“No.” Carolina answered. “It was about a cookout.” 

“Oh.” South leaned back. “That thing. Yeah, it’s a yearly tradition. Lot more wholesome than York’s Halloween party, so you should be safe.”

Carolina eyed South. “Are you going?”

The two of them had never really don’t  _ anything _ together aside from share a living space. They’d never really talked about anything other than their day to day schedules to make sure that they wouldn’t be facing the problem of overlapping shower times. 

South shrugged. “I’m not usually one to turn down free food, and North gets needy if I don’t come over. So yeah, I’ll probably go.” 

Carolina nodded along, considering. “We could carpool.” 

“You’re driving.” South grinned. “Make sure to aim for Wash again, alright? I prefer a show with my dinner.”

Carolina’s stomach flipped. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. 

* * *

They arrived at Wash, North, and York’s building to find that they had already fired up the tiny grill on their back porch. North was out at the grill, cleaning off the grate with a brush. York by comparison sat on a railing where he probably  _ really  _ shouldn’t have with a beer in his hand. There wasn’t any sign of Wash, which made Carolina a little bit nervous to begin with. 

He still didn’t know that she was coming. She probably should have texted him to let him know that she was coming, but hadn’t. 

Carolina found a parking spot that was off in the corner, where it didn’t look like she’d be penalized for parking. The last thing she needed was to get towed for parking in a particularly pissy tenant’s spot. Once she was parked, South led the way, already reaching down into her pockets so that she could remove her own keys. The blonde rifled through the keys until she found what she was looking for.

“We’re good.” South grinned. “I can let us in, and then we can deal with the rest of them when we see them.”

And yeah, that  _ sounded _ good, but Carolina had some doubts already. Mostly because it seemed like South’s plan was to more or less break into her brother's apartment without much care to anything else that could have been involved in the equation. 

They didn’t have to though. 

The door opened before anyone could even knock on it. 

York leaned against the doorframe. “Hey.” He said, grinning at the two of them. “You two supposed to be the entertainment?” He nursed his beer, and Carolina couldn’t help the immediate thought that he’d probably already had a few at that point. It was even possible that he’d been drinking for most of the day, Carolina thought. 

She wasn’t sure that it was worth entertaining as much. 

South didn’t give her a chance to answer on her own though. 

“Fuck off, York.” South sneered. “Let me in so I can see my baby brother.”

York raised an eyebrow. “And?”

“And if you don’t, I’m going to rip your balls off with my bare hands.” South finished, even though Carolina assumed that York had been looking for a please. “And you know that's not an empty threat.” 

“It is not.” The brunet in the doorway laughed, and slinked out of the way so that South and Carolina could come in on their own. He closed the door behind them, and Carolina let out a little breath of relief knowing that she was in the clear for the moment. 

It didn’t last. 

York thrust his hand toward her. “You must be Carolina.” He said, grinning an old-fashioned hollywood smile. Classic handsome, Carolina couldn’t help but think. There was no way that it wasn’t something that he had gone out of his way to carefully curate about himself. “Nice to finally meet you for real.” 

Carolina took his hand and gave it a firm shake before pulling her hand back. “And you’re York.” She said. “Can’t say I’ve heard many good things.” 

He only laughed. “Yeah, I get that a lot. Wash is in the kitchen if you want to say hi.” 

“Yeah.” Carolina confirmed. “I’d like that.” 

York seemed surprisingly delighted over the fact that he was dragging Carolina through the little apartment so that she could see Wash. In fact, he almost didn’t stop chattering the entire time they walked, pointing out where the bathroom and Wash’s room before they finally reached the kitchen. 

It was an alcove, separated from the rest of the living room by a single long counter. The kitchen was well-stocked, with plates of vegetables and dip, and bags of chip and bottles of soda all laid out for use. There was also the mountain of sandwich toppings which Carolina assumed were for the cookout that was happening outside.

In the back corner, seemingly involved in the process of making himself a drink, was Wash. 

“Hey.” York spoke up. “Wash.” 

Wash seemed to do a full-body eyeroll. “What do you want York?”

“I want you to say hi to our guests.” York responded easily. “So you should turn around.” 

Wash groaned but turned all the same. 

He froze in place the second that he saw Carolina. 

York gave a wide vulpine smile. “I’ll leave you kids alone.” He said before he was slipping back out to the patio with his drink. 

Wash swallowed nervously once he was sure that the two of them were there alone. “Hey.” He greeted her. “You uh… you’re here.” 

“Yeah.” Carolina confirmed. “York… may have stolen my number out of your phone to invite me.” She paused for a moment. “So you might want to change your lockscreen.” 

“Noted.” Wash let out a heavy sigh. “I um… this is just surprising.”

Carolina shrugged. “South and I are bunkmates.” She explained. “Since we were both invited we figured that we should just carpool…” Her voice trailed off as it settled in just how shitty it was that she hadn’t let him know that she was going to be there. “I should have called you. I’m sorry.” 

He nodded. “No, I mean, it’s fine.” He said. “I’m surprised but I can’t really say that this is a bad thing. I’ll probably be glad you’re here once more people start showing up.” He turned back to the counter behind him. “Do you want something to drink, or—”

“Water will be good for now.” Carolina insisted gently. “If that’s alright.” 

“That's good.” Wash said. “So you can just switch to something harder later if you want to. Which you probably will.” 

Carolina raised an eyebrow. “You seem confident about how this will go?”

Wash glanced back towards the door and let out a sigh. “Not everyone is here yet. When they get here, that’s when things start to get  _ weird  _ normally.” 

“Got it.” 

He smiled at her though. “So um. How’s your day been anyways?” 

“Well.” Carolina started. Was there really a way to talk about what she did from day to day that didn’t also manage to be completely boring in the process? She had a feeling that anything that she could have come up with to say would only end up sounding lackluster anyways. “This is the only thing that I’m doing today that’s not part of my usual schedule.” 

“Oh.” He blushed. “So I guess we should try to make sure we have a good time, then?”

“It would be nice.” Carolina joked, feeling more at ease being in the same room as Wash than she’d been expecting. 

Looking around his apartment, it was nice. Someone put in the time to keep it clean, even if the kitchen was a state of disarray for the moment due to the fact that they were hosting a party. Carolina couldn’t exactly go ahead and blame Wash, or even his two roommates for that fact. 

Wash’s mouth opened slightly as he tried to find the words that he supposedly needed. But then he put on an awkward smile and looked at Carolina more directly. “It sounded like York was giving you a tour already?”

“Calling it a tour is probably being generous.” Carolina replied, because that was the honest to god truth. “But I don’t think that it was so bad.” 

There was a knock on the door to the apartment. Wash whipped his head around to look at the door. He was barely a few feet out of the kitchen before York was all but  _ sprinting _ down the hallway in his socks. Wash’s eyes widened and he slipped out of the hall and then back into the kitchen. 

“Hey, you made it!” Carolina heard York say to someone by the door. She raised an eyebrow and looked at Wash expectantly. 

Before Wash could say anything, York was heading down the hallway with a dish of  _ something  _ in his hands. York was followed closely by a young woman that seemed somewhat familiar who carried an almost identical dish in her hands, with the only distinction between the two being that one of the dishes was covered in green saran wrap. 

York grinned wide and set the first of the dishes down before the woman set hers down right next to it. 

The girl turned around, saw Wash, and then a wide, shit-eating grin spread across her face.

“Hey there!” She greeted him. “It’s the cop? You going to rat me out?”

“I’m not a cop. Yet. And I’m not ‘ratting you out.’” Wash replied with an eyeroll. “Nice to see you again, Kai.”

York pushed himself in close to Kai. “He’s going to be cool.” He said, giving Wash a weird look that practically  _ begged _ for Wash to confirm that he was going to be ‘cool.’ It was also in that moment that what had just happened began to occur to Carolina. 

“Yeah.” Wash said, his eyebrows raising slightly before he leaned over to Carolina to whisper into her ear. “Don’t eat the ones with the green wrap.” He said quietly. “For your own sake. I made that mistake last year. It's not worth it.” 

Kai just looked past Wash to focus on Carolina instead. “Hey!” She greeted her. “You’re new!” She looked back at Wash and York accusingly. “You didn't tell me there were going to be  _ girls _ here.” 

York snorted. “South is here too.” 

“Yeah, but this one’s  _ new _ .” Kai said, all but pushing herself into Carolina’s space. “Who are  _ you? _ ”

“I’m Carolina.” She introduced herself. “Wash’s girlfriend.” 

Kai’s eyes widened and she looked from Carolina to Wash and then back, absolutely stunned. She then turned on Wash, seemingly looking for answers. She barely got her mouth open before York put a hand on her shoulder. 

“C’mon.” He said quietly. “I think North set up the volleyball net earlier.” York tugged gently on Kai’s arm, and then moments later the two of them were leaving, and Carolina was glad that it was once again just her and Wash in the kitchen. 

Wash let out a heavy sigh. “So… I didn’t invite you to this for a reason. I didn’t want you to have to… experience all of that.” 

“Is this normal?” Carolina asked, her eyes straying over to the two trays. Now that they were set down, she could see that they contained cookies of some sort. There was no question as to what the secret ingredient in one of the two dishes of them were. “Or…”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Wash replied, completely relaxed. “It tends to get weird.” 

And yeah, Carolina could see that. 

Wash looked back at her, with wide eyes. “I mean, York and his friends can get fun, and he pays more of the rent than I do so I can’t really argue with it. I just didn’t want you to have to deal with it.” 

It was a sentiment that Carolina understood. She couldn’t exactly pretend as though she didn’t get it at all. If it were her, she probably would have done what she could to protect Wash from it too. But then again, she didn’t really know that she  _ liked  _ knowing that Wash hadn’t invited her solely because there would be drug use at whatever parties were being hosted at his place. 

“Well, I’ll be fine.” Carolina assured Wash. “I promise.” 

“Sure.” He sighed. “You hungry?” Wash looked at her more directly. “Because if you want something to eat, I’m sure that North’s probably getting ready to start grilling.” 

“Haven’t eaten yet.” Carolina explained. “Me and South had the same idea about it. We could skip lunch and then load up on the free food once we got here.” 

“Free food?” Another voice said, and Carolina and Wash both looked to the door to the patio where North was standing, relaxed and calm. “I was about to start, since you two asked.” 

Wash’s face turned red. North just made his way into the kitchen and went straight to the fridge so that he could get whatever was inside. “Let me know what you two want.” 

“Um…” Wash hesitated. “Cheeseburger would be good.” 

North looked to Carolina as he removed a plate of handmade burgers from the fridge. “And you?”

“The same.” Carolina said. She couldn’t remember the last time that she’d had a good burger, and since the patties were clearly handmade she had a feeling that North was making something that would be at least slightly above average. 

“Sounds easy enough.” North said, straightening up and placing the plate of burgers on a plastic tray. “I’ll let you two know when they’re ready… or?”

“That’ll be good.” Wash answered, clearly feeling no need to use North’s out. “Thanks.”

North grinned wide and then looked at Carolina. “Could I talk to you for a minute?”

Carolina was taken aback. She didn’t know anything about either of Wash’s roommates aside from the little that he’d bothered to tell her about the two of them. She looked to Wash, and only got a shrug in response. “Go ahead.” He said a second later. “He’s not as weird as York is. You could almost call him normal, even.”

Carolina couldn’t have possibly missed the way that North rolled his eyes, but she nodded, and then Wash was heading out of the room to leave Carolina with North just for a moment so that the two of them could talk. Carolina leaned back against a counter and waited for North to speak up. 

“I’m really sorry about everything.” North said, standing up tall. “That… happened on you and Wash’s date. I went with a bad idea.” 

“No kidding.” Carolina answered North. “But apology accepted. The end result wasn’t that bad.” 

North snorted, clearly amused with her response. “I’m glad to hear that from you.” He said finally, and Carolina couldn’t help but wonder whether or not he’d had the same conversation with Wash at some point. “I just wanted to let you know that if you ever feel like you want to come over, you can. Wash clearly likes you, I think it’d make him happy.” 

Carolina blinked. She certainly hadn’t been expecting that sort of reaction out of North and yet that was what she was given anyways. 

“I’ll think about it.” Carolina said. “Are you always this nice to his girlfriends?”

“I try to be nice to everyone my friends see.” North said, standing up tall and picking up the grey plastic tray that was filled with food. “I don’t see any reason to treat you any differently.” 

Carolina smiled. “Thanks.” She whispered, just loud enough that she could be sure that North couldn’t have missed it. 

The blonde shot back a gentle smile in her direction before he left her alone in the kitchen. 

* * *

Carolina found herself sitting on the couch with Wash hours later, most of the small party having settled down to a certain degree. At some point York had disappeared to his own room, and North was out on the patio with his sister while the two of them talked quietly. What had happened with Kai, Carolina didn’t actually know. She assumed that Kai was off with York.

All that she knew was that she and Wash had managed to get a little more privacy than she’d originally thought that the two of them would get. 

“So what do you think?” Wash asked, his thumb smoothing over her ankle. Carolina twitched her foot away from him, not entirely sure that she wanted that sort of comfort but willing to take it anyways because Wash was so warm. “Now that you’ve been here a few hours?”

Carolina hummed quietly. She couldn’t exactly bring Wash over to where she was living at all, so in a way she hadn’t even considered that it was possible for her to be curled up on a couch with him. The more that she thought about it, the more that she realized that she hadn’t even considered to be possible. She let out a quiet breath. 

“It’s nice.” She answered him. “I was worried that this was going to be a disaster.” 

“Me too.” Wash admitted. “Because…”

“Because you have one roommate that’s a worrywart, and another roommate with no problem with people bringing edibles to a party.” Carolina filled in the blanks for Wash, smiling slightly all the way. “Was that it?”

He let out a little snort. “Yeah, that about sums it up.” Wash looked back at her. “I was kind of embarrassed.” 

“I get that.” Carolina admitted, because if she was in the same place she figured that she might have done the same thing. The only thing was that the most embarrassing person in her life was someone that she tried desperately to keep at arms length, mostly because family was hard. “They're not that bad.”

Wash snorted. “Tell me that again in a month.” 

“Oh?” Carolina asked, leaning forward slightly to look Wash in the eyes. “Any reason you’re saying that?” 

He let out an awkward little laugh, almost leaning back away from Carolina like he was intimidated by her. “What I mean is that I have a feeling that what I say or feel isn’t going to matter, and you’re probably going to end up here for York’s Halloween Party.” 

Carolina raised an eyebrow. “That bad, huh?”

“It has a reputation that speaks for itself.” Wash said with a swallow. “If you want to come, then I guess you’ll be seeing it firsthand.” 

She considered it. Of course, there was a solid month before she’d have to answer to the invitation for real, and if it  _ was _ a Halloween party, then surely costumes had to be something that she’d need to consider. 

“And if I do?” Carolina asked, her eyes still locked on Wash’s. “What happens then?”

There was something that Wash was trying to hide from her. Carolina was dead certain of it. She just had to figure out what it was that he was trying so hard to keep her from considering. It was clear enough that drug use was part of it, but there had to be something else. Something embarrassing, if Wash’s reactions were any indicator. 

“You’ll have to see for yourself.” Wash said, swallowing. “I’m sure you can guess about it.” 

“Sure.” Carolina smirked, leaning back against the couch and allowing herself to lean in close to Wash. He was warm and comfortable, warmer than the cool wind that blew into the apartment via the open patio door. “Since you seem so bent on it, I guess I’ll have to.” 

“So you’re coming?”

“As of right now?” Carolina asked. “Yes.” 

Wash sighed, but leaned against her just the same as she did. There was a shitty old movie playing on the TV, something that Carolina hadn’t seen but it was interesting enough to keep her attention. It did the same with Wash, and Carolina realized later that they’d spent the entire evening pressing closer and closer together. 

At close to midnight, the quiet time that they had together was interrupted by South coming in. 

“Hey.” She said from behind the couch. Carolina picked her head up to look back at her bunkmate. She blinked sleepily. 

“What is it?”

“Almost midnight.” South said. “We’re like two hours past curfew and we’ve got drills in the morning.” 

_ Shit _ . 

South had a point, and Carolina knew it. It wasn’t really something that she could just  _ ignore,  _ all things considered. She and South were about guaranteed to suffer in the morning if they didn’t get back to base soon. 

Wash looked between the two women. “So I guess you two have to go?”

“Yeah.” Carolina sighed. “Not really any helping it either.”

“I get it.” Wash said quietly. “It is what it is.”

“Right.” Carolina answered. “I’ll text you in the morning.” 

“You two done?” South asked, impatient.

Carolina rolled her eyes and reached into her pocket to find her keys. She tossed them to South, who caught them with effortless ease. “I’ll be right out.” She said. “If you want to get the car warmed up.” 

South shot Carolina what Carolina could only describe as a dirty look, but she snatched the keys out of Carolina’s hand nonetheless. The blonde left the apartment, which left her and Wash alone for just a moment. Just long enough to make sure that they got to say their goodbyes for the night. 

Wash locked his eyes with her. “Sounds like you’ve got to go soon?”

“Yeah.” Carolina answered as she began to get up. She at least needed to get her jacket and put her shoes on before she could go to her car. “It’s been really fun tonight, Wash.” 

He smiled back at her. “Yeah, it was.” Wash sighed, looking back towards the door. “Um, if you want—”

She raised an eyebrow. 

“I’ve got an appointment coming up to look at my arm.” Wash explained. “And if you wanted, you could come along and… join me?”

Carolina couldn’t help but feel a little taken aback by Wash’s question. She hadn’t thought that he would want her to go to an appointment with him at  _ any _ point. And yet there he was, making that offer, and now that it was there she  _ didn’t even know what to do with it. _

Her eyes trailed back towards the door. She was on a timeline, Carolina reminded herself. “How about you text me about it in the morning.” She suggested. That was better, because at least that way she wasn’t as likely to end up forgetting about Wash’s request. 

“So that’s not a no?”

“It’s not a no.” Carolina slipped her jacket on and zipped it shut. Wash got up along with her, and even walked Carolina over to the door so that they could say their goodbyes for real. 

Carolina had barely managed to slip her shoes on when Wash closed his hand around her own. 

“Hey.” He said, his voice husky. “Wait.” 

“What’s wrong?” Carolina turned slowly back towards Wash. 

“I just—” He locked his eyes with her, and Carolina felt her breath hitch in her chest. Before Carolina could say anything else Wash was stepping up into her space, pulling her in even closer to him. 

Carolina made no attempt to slide away from Wash, not even when he cupped her jaw to press a kiss to her lips. She froze at first, and then leaned back into Wash, her lips moving against his own. She felt like she was all but drowning in his touch, in his comfort. 

He was  _ warm _ , and soft and hard in the right ways. He was gentle and kind. 

What had she done to deserve him? Certainly not hit him with her car.

The kiss broke after a moment, but neither of them really pulled away from each other. Their foreheads were pressed together, and Carolina looked back at Wash’s freckled face through her eyelashes. 

All at once, Wash’s face turned into a smile. “Thanks.” He whispered to her. “That was nice.” 

“Yeah.” Carolina replied, pulling away from Wash. She could have pulled him back in for another kiss, but it was better not to. 

Best leave it for another day, whenever that day would be. 


	7. The One Where He Has An Appointment

“Are you sure that you’ll be okay?” North asked, standing by while Wash wiggled his feet into his shoes without bothering to untie them. Carolina would be around to pick him up in a few minutes, and when that happened the two of them were heading off to the hospital to make sure that Wash could get his arm looked at. A routine appointment, as far as Wash could tell. If anything out of the ordinary happened it would have been a  _ surprise.  _ “I know you don’t really like hospitals.”

Wash looked back at North. His roommate had been nursing his coffee for some time, to the point where Wash was fairly certain that the drink had to be getting cold. “I’ll be okay.” He said quietly. “Carolina’s going to be coming around soon to pick me up.” 

North’s pale eyebrows shot up towards his brow. “ _ Oh _ .”

“Yeah.” Wash sighed, kneeling down to worm his right foot the rest of the way into his shoe, since the insole had decided to pull itself up when he’d last taken it off. “I’ll be fine. Won’t exactly be alone for this one.” 

North sighed and nodded along. “Sounds good.” 

Wash felt his phone vibrate down in his pocket. Carolina was there to get him, then. He stood up tall and looked up at North. “I’ll be back in a few hours probably.” He said quietly, heading towards the door. As he got close though, Wash couldn’t help but pause.

“Carolina’s probably coming to the Halloween party,” Wash stated. It was better to mention it sooner so that they didn’t have to deal with whatever weird things came up later. It wasn’t exactly  _ wise _ to assume nothing would come up. “If you could let York know—”

“Sure thing.” North answered before Wash could even finish. “Go meet her. No reason to keep her waiting, right?” 

Wash nodded, left the apartment, and walked out to the parking lot where Carolina’s car was idling out front. 

As he got closer he heard the sound of the doors unlocking, so Wash climbed into the passenger’s seat without any preamble. 

“Hey,” He greeted Carolina immediately. “How’re you?”

“I could ask you the same.” Carolina replied, shooting him a quick smile before they began to roll forward. “You’re ready, right?”

“Yeah.” Wash sighed. “Hopefully they decide that my arm is good enough that I don’t have to wear the cast anymore. I’m sick of this thing.” 

She nodded along, more of her attention on the road than on him for the moment. She was just being cautious, Wash knew. That was all. Nothing more, nothing less. After all, it wasn’t like Carolina had started giving him reasons to  _ doubt _ that she was still interested in being with him. 

“I’d hope so.” Carolina finally answered after what seemed like an extra-slow stop in front of a crosswalk. It hadn’t occurred to Wash at all that it was possible that she was being more cautious about pedestrians. He’d never thought to look for it before then, but there it was. Written out for him, plain as day: she was terrified.

Wash stretched his legs out as much as he could in the small area that the passenger’s seat provided him. “So I ended up telling North that you were planning to come to York’s halloween party.” 

Carolina cocked her head to the side a little, watching as a couple passed by in front of the car on foot. “You didn’t tell York?”

“North will get to it. York listens better to him anyways.” Wash answered. “I just figured that I’d let you know. You’ll be considered when they plan for food and all of that.”

“I wasn’t aware I needed to RSVP.” Carolina hummed as she began to drive again, bringing them closer and closer to the hospital so that Wash could have his apartment. “Is that a thing?”

“Not really.” Wash admitted. “York tends to let people just show up with whatever friends they want to without much regard for the consequences.”

Carolina nodded along slowly, eyes glued securely to the road. 

“Will there be costumes?”

“Yeah.” Wash sighed, wincing. “There will be.” 

Carolina caught the wince in her peripheral vision, which only led to her giving Wash a weird look. “You seem less than enthused about it.” 

Wash rubbed at his face, not  _ really _ sure whether or not there was even a way that he could prepare Carolina for what she would see when she inevitably came to York’s Halloween Party. Mostly because Wash was pretty sure that there was  _ nothing _ on the planet that could even begin to compare to York’s ever-shrinking cowboy costume, or the inevitability of more than one people showing up in skimpier and skimpier police officer costumes as was part of a standing tradition.

He swallowed hard. “I never said that they were good costumes,” was ultimately all that he could offer Carolina as an explanation. It was one that was more than pitiful, but he had to be at least somewhat upfront. “They get weird.”

“Weird as in buckets of ‘fake blood and creative use of liquid latex,’ or weird as in…”

“As in cutoff shorts that end at crotch level.” Wash finished for her, just as she turned into the parking lot for the hospital. “You get used to it after a little bit, but it takes a few minutes to get there.” 

Carolina let out a little laugh and shook her head, like there was absolutely nothing that was wrong with what Wash had just said. She pulled into the first good parking spot that she could find and parked there with quite a bit of ease. 

They sat there in the car, a little longer than either of them had to. 

“It sounds more like you’d prefer a chance to get away from all of that.” Carolina commented, unbuckling her seat belt and removing her phone from the cup holder in the center console. 

Wash shrugged, because he knew that at least on  _ some _ level Carolina was absolutely correct. The only issue was that he always had trouble figuring out just what he was meant to do with himself. Going to a bar on Halloween seemed like it would be just as bad as going to York’s party, and he wasn’t  _ really _ in love with going to the movies and paying four times more for tickets and popcorn than his parents ever had when he was a kid. 

And  _ they’d _ been handling him, themselves, and his two sisters. 

He unbuckled his own seat belt and carefully climbed out of Carolina’s car at about the same time that she did the same on the other side. “Maybe I don’t hate it as much as I say.” He admitted, which just got an amused eye roll out of Carolina. He closed the door and approached her, since they were going to have to find their way so he could check in for his appointment anyways. 

Carolina let him take the lead, and only broke out ahead of him to pull doors open when they got close to them. 

“You know where you’re going, right?” Carolina asked, sliding her hands down into the pockets of her jacket. 

Wash nodded along and fished his own phone out of his pocket so that he could check a photo of the post-it note that he’d recorded his appointment information on. He would have just brought the note, but took the photo because he was just less likely to forget his phone at home than he was a post-it note. “I’m pretty sure that I do.” He said, choosing to take the path towards the check-in desk. 

Carolina pat him on the shoulder, and Wash realized then that she was simply standing out of the way so that he could make sure that he was going to the right place. 

The conversation with the woman at the desk took all of twelve seconds. They confirmed that he was in fact going to the right place, but also that he was indeed going to be seeing a Doctor Emily Grey. 

Wash rejoined Carolina. “We’re good.” He said, taking the lead. “Everything I had was right.” 

Carolina nodded and followed along after him. “Is this a doctor that you’ve seen before?” 

“Uh, yeah.” Wash admitted, feeling his stomach flip at the thought of it. “She was the one that ended up taking care of me the night that…” He gestured vaguely to his arm, not really wanting to risk making Carolina feel any worse about what had happened. 

“Oh.” Carolina pursed her lips.

Wash swallowed. “She’s… uh, interesting?”

Carolina eyed him. “Do you need to sue for malpractice or something?” She asked, having obviously picked up on Wash’s reluctance. “Because if there’s something wrong—”

“There’s nothing wrong!” Wash protested, steering the two of them into an elevator. “She’s just kind of… eccentric is all. Really eccentric.” 

“ _ Right.” _

Wash sighed. “I promise she's not that bad. Just different.” 

Carolina nodded along. “If you’re sure,” She said. “I just don’t want you to end up having problems to deal with later.”

Wash rolled his eyes, knowing that Carolina was just playing along to a certain degree. “It’ll be fine.” He reassured her as the two of them departed the elevator. He led them through the halls, taking the two turns that led them into a waiting area. He paused for a second. “I’ll be with you in a second.” He murmured. 

Carolina took the cue to find a seat in the waiting area, and once Wash had checked himself in for real (and had been assured that Doctor Grey would be with him soon,) he went back to sit down next to Carolina. 

She’d found a tattered National Geographic magazine and was flipping through pages of photos of antelopes. 

Wash relaxed into the seat beside her and wondered whether or not he could pull off the trick where he pretended to yawn and used it as a chance to slide his arm behind Carolina’s back. He’d seen York pull it off countless times, but York also somehow managed to ooze charm from his every pore and was worst of all completely aware of that fact. The only thing that offset it was that York was also kind of an ass even at the best of times. 

Carolina smirked at his side. “Something wrong?”

“Nah.” Wash replied, leaning back into his seat. “Just a little nervous, I guess.” He lied. “Kind of anxious to get out of the cast and get back to living my life.” 

“That I can understand.” Carolina sighed. “And I can’t say that I’m not looking forward to you being out of the cast either.” 

“Because you feel guilty?” Wash prodded, which only made Carolina straighten up and freeze up, embarrassed. “Or for some other reason?”

Carolina seemed to relax, if only slightly. “Because I’d be happy to see you out of the cast, Wash.” She replied, and Wash couldn’t help but think that there was a slight edge of annoyance to the way that she said it. “There doesn’t have to be much more to it than that.”

He couldn’t really blame her for it, not really. He probably wouldn’t have been too happy about it either. 

He shrugged. “I’m sure Doctor Grey will free me from it soon.” 

“I hope so.” 

* * *

They ended up waiting for all of half an hour before the door opened and a cheery looking nurse that was dressed in only purple popped his head out to see them. “David Washington?” He asked, and Wash stood up right away. Carolina set the magazine that she’d picked up down back on the table and rose with him. 

The nurse brought them into an examination room where Wash took a seat on the examination table. Carolina leaned against the wall, and it was only then that the nurse spoke up. Wash recognized his voice immediately from the night he’d first been admitted.

“I’m Doc.” He said, flipping through the charts that he’d been given. “Doctor Grey will be in for you soon. So get comfortable and she’ll be in soon.” 

“That's it?” Wash asked. “Not going to run any tests or anything?”

“Uh, no.” Nurse Doc answered. “I’m not very good at them anyways, so Doctor Grey will probably do all of that stuff on her own anyways. Besides, you’re just going in for an X-Ray by the looks of things.” 

Wash eyed Doc suspiciously as the nurse left the room and he and Carolina were left alone, if just for a moment. 

Carolina was the first one to speak up. “Sounds like they might have hope for you yet.” 

“Yeah, I hope so.” Wash muttered, thumbing at the edge of the compression cast that he’d been wearing for weeks. He wanted to be rid of it, if only because it meant that he’d be able to get back to living his life normally. He missed being able to buy groceries without having to consider how much he could carry at once. 

He also just missed having something to do with his life that wasn’t sitting around doing paperwork and waiting for his arm to heal. 

It was a blessedly short late before the door swung open and a bubbly, short woman dressed in purple scrubs with a white lab coat stepped into the room. Her dark hair was only held back away from her face with a bright purple headband. 

“Hello!” She greeted the two of then. “Mister Washington, I’m so glad to see you again!” The woman, whose name tag identified her as being Doctor Emily Grey chirped. She then noticed that Carolina was there, still standing against the wall. “And who are you?”

“This is Carolina.” Wash explained before Carolina could get a word in, if only because he didn’t want to risk anything weird happening as of that moment. 

Doctor Grey paused and then pointed a bony finger in Carolina’s direction. “Are you the one that hit him?”

And  _ that _ was exactly what Wash had been trying to avoid. It would figure that he wouldn’t be able to get that. 

“She is.” He answered, hopeful that it would get Grey to quiet down. “She’s been helping me with paying for my medical bills.” 

Doctor Grey’s head cocked to the side. “Well,” She said. “That's  _ certainly  _ interesting.” 

“Yeah.” Wash mumbled, feeling his face heat up with a blush. “It is.”

Carolina though, she just took everything in stride as she always seemed to. “We’re actually seeing each other.” She added on, which made Doctor Grey perk up, surprisingly. 

“Well that is  _ certainly _ the oddest story I’ve heard about that sort of thing.” She paused for a moment, considering the statement. “I mean, I  _ do _ know a couple that met because they’re both allergic to blue cheese, but that’s neither here nor there.” She whorled on Wash and grinned at him. “So!” She started. “How are you feeling?”

Wash thought it over. “I haven’t needed the painkillers in a while.” He explained, crossing his ankles as he sat on the examination table. “So I hope that’s a good sign.” 

“Not needing painkillers is  _ always _ a good sign.” Doctor Grey chirped. “The last thing that you need is to end up with a dependency because they're so addictive, right?”

“Right.” Wash echoed, and all at once something settled into the back of his mind that made  _ a lot _ of things start to make sense. Like why York got all touchy about him using the painkillers to begin with. Maybe it would have been a good idea to talk to York about all of that later and make sure that his concern wasn’t simply in a supply line which he may or may not have needed. “I figured I wasn’t going to bother with a new prescription.” 

“That’s perfect!” Doctor Grey chirped. “Is there anything else that you want to talk about before we take a look at how your bones are coming back together?”

“Uh—” Wash’s brow crinkled as he considered the question. “No?”

“That’s too bad.” Doctor Grey continued on. “I guess I’ll call up Doctor Kevorkian over in radiology then and then we can hurry right over. After that if we’re lucky we can take that cast of yours off.”

Wash swallowed. “Yeah, I think that’d be good.” 

With that, Doctor Grey left the two of them alone in the room so that she could make a quick call across the hospital to be sure that there was room for them. 

Carolina let out a heavy sigh at Wash’s side. “You were right. She certainly seems… odd.” 

“Yeah, she is.” Wash replied, running a hand through his hair to push it away from his face, even though he didn’t really have bangs anymore. “Sorry about… all of that.” 

Carolina shrugged, and it occurred to Wash just how unsure of herself she seemed to be. 

“It’s alright.” She said quietly. “I can’t be too surprised by it, can I?” 

Wash let out a heavy sigh and shook his head, but Carolina didn’t miss the little smile that crossed his expressions with the motion. “I guess not.” He told her after a moment. From what it sounded like, the visit there at the hospital wouldn’t have to go on for too much longer after. 

He  _ really _ hoped that Doctor Grey let him out of the cast though. He never wanted to have to wear on ever again, regardless of whether it was just a compression cast or not. 

Carolina watched him though, quiet and soft in ways that Wash wasn’t entirely used to in that moment. 

“So…” Carolina spoke up. “Once we’re done here, is there anything else that we have to worry about?”

“Might have to stop by the pharmacy, depending on how this goes.” Wash admitted, even as he didn’t want to have to talk about the matter all that much. “l hope not, though. I’m really looking forward to not being prescribed anything.”

“And after that?” Carolina prompted on. 

Wash considered the question. It occurred to him in that moment that it was entirely likely that Carolina was just looking for a chance for the two of them to stick together for a bit longer before she found herself going back to base to spend her night with… South probably. Far from an enviable position to be in.

If he was being completely honest with himself, he would have gone ahead and tried to avoid that particular situation too. South made for a stressful time, in his personal experience. 

At a loss for words, Wash only shrugged. “We can figure it out?” He prompted, hopeful that it would be a good enough answer for Carolina. When he saw the relaxed smile that stretched across her face, he felt some of the butterflies in his stomach begin to dissipate. 

“We’ll figure it out.” Carolina repeated, apparently satisfied with his answer. 

* * *

The rest of Wash’s appointment went well enough, though his arm wasn’t  _ quite _ ready to come out of the cast just yet. He wasn’t too surprised with it, but it did seem to be healing well enough that Doctor Grey wasn’t all that concerned. 

Afterwards, Carolina and him had made the decision to swing by the pharmacy just to make sure that he had some basic painkillers on hand— nothing more intense than aspirin, really. With that tiny chore out of the way, the decision to have lunch was made. 

It was nothing more than greasy burgers, but it was somehow exactly what Wash would have wanted anyways. 

Carolina popped a fry into her mouth, satisfied with the meal as well. Wash partially suspected that Carolina wasn’t  _ really _ supposed to be having so unhealthy, given what she did for a living, but he wasn’t going to call her on it, and he had a feeling that she didn’t want it brought up anyways. 

As for Wash, he was happy to have something smothered in cheese and loaded with pickles. 

“So that Halloween party—” Carolina started between fries. “That’s what, two weeks away?”

“Uh, yeah.” Wash answered her. “We can figure out a costume together…” He poked at his burger, suddenly nervous. “If you want.” 

Carolina blinked. “I’ll think about it.” She replied after a moment. “Based on what I’ve heard about this party, it sounds like choosing something for a costume is going to be a bit of a… challenge.” 

And yeah,  _ that _ couldn’t be much further from the truth. 

Wash swallowed. “Well, York always wears this uh… I want to call it a cowboy costume but that might be being  _ generous.  _ At this point its genuinely closer to lingerie. _ ” _ He began to explain. “North always wears something pretty family friendly. I think he was supposed to be Mister Rogers one year. Either that or he forgot to wear a costume that year. It’s not entirely clear.” 

Carolina blinked. “Okay, so that sounds fine.” 

“You haven’t seen the cowboy costume.” Wash replied. “Pretty much anything you wear should be good.” 

Carolina leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. “And what do  _ you _ usually wear?”

Wash blushed. “I have this uh… it’s a cat onesie. It usually does the trick.” 

“Cute.” 

“Don’t make fun of me.” 

She snorted. “I wasn’t making fun of you.” She prodded him gently. “I’m sure you’re actually cute.” 

He felt his face heat up even more at the suggestion. “It’s just a onesie.” Wash said, hoping that it would be enough to let him downplay his own embarrassment for a moment. 

Carolina nodded along. “I’m sure it is.” She said. “I’ll let you know when I come up with something.” 

There was a pause. 

“ _ If _ I come up with something. I could just show up in fatigues and get away with that, right?”

“You could.” Wash replied. “But it  _ might _ not go over all that well given the way that things tend do go.” 

She let out a tiny laugh. “I’ll keep that in mind.” 


	8. The One With The Halloween Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the extra long wait before this chapter, I thought that I'd worked out the scheduling correctly but as it turns out I am, and continue to be a dumb bitch that is bad at math. 
> 
> So yeah. Please enjoy this in spite of that fact. 
> 
> Thanks for reading.

Carolina kept up with Wash over the course of the two weeks leading up to the party, just as she’d promised him. 

It was the night of the party, and Carolina couldn’t help but feel a  _ little _ bit on edge about it. As Halloween had approached, she’d heard a lot more and more about what she was supposed to expect from the party. 

Wash didn’t exactly paint the most  _ flattering _ picture of it. When Carolina had asked South about it, she'd gotten no response at all and instead was asked the question of whether or not the two of them could carpool for the party or not. 

Carolina was willing to drive South there, but wasn’t quite as sure about how South would get home. It sounded like there tended to be  _ a lot _ of drinking at the party, on top of whatever else got brought in. If the plan was for the two of them to crash there, then that was fine but  _ knowing _ still would have been nice. 

Mostly, Wash had told her to distrust any and all baked goods unless she could verify without a shadow of a doubt that North had been the one to make it. That was something that Carolina could do easily enough. 

The only other request (which had come from York directly) was that she bring  _ something _ to contribute to the liquor supply for the night. And fruit. He didn’t elaborate on what kind of fruit or why he needed fruit, but he asked for fruit. Weird requests, but also easy to do. 

It was why she was showing up to the party in her car, dressed in a cheap witch costume that she’d managed to pick up at a drug store the day before, with South sitting at shotgun holding onto a bottle of vodka and a bag of limes. Sitting in South’s lap was a container of store-bought pre-cut pineapple. 

When they arrived at the condo that York, Wash, and North shared, there was a clear and distinct shortage of parking to be found. Carolina let out a little hiss from between her teeth as she pulled into the same corner of the parking lot that she’d used the first time around. 

South edged forward in her seat. “This looks good already.” She said, a wicked grin spreading across her face. “North must  _ hate _ it.” 

“I thought North liked these parties?” Carolina asked, putting the car into park and removing her keys from the ignition.

South snorted. “What North likes is the  _ after _ party. Not the party itself.” 

“Wash hates this party too.” Carolina supplied. She’d been getting increasingly distressed texts from Wash just about all day. Apparently the  _ festivities _ had started early for York, at the very least. 

There had been something about how doing shots of maple bourbon while he was eating waffles was  _ not _ the same as using syrup. When Carolina had asked for context, she was once again given none. 

She sent off a text to Wash just to let him know that she and South had arrived, before the two of them were getting out of the car and heading towards the correct apartment. There was the soft buzz of her phone in her pocket, but Carolina didn’t bother to check what it was. 

It was probably Wash, and she was going to be seeing him in a moment anyhow. 

South took the lead and knocked on the door. Carolina stood at her side, unable to feel anything other than awkward. 

When the door opened, Carolina got the first realization as to why Wash had warned her about the party, and why people that she talked about it with seemed to dance around the topic. 

York was the one to open the door, his chest bare aside from a cheap leather vest. There was a bandana around his neck and a cowboy hat on his head. When Carolina looked down, she realized that he was wearing a pair of cutoff shorts with a belt buckle that read 'CATHOLIC SCHOOL GIRL GONE BAD.' The pockets of the shorts stuck out past where the cutoff ended with frayed edges.

There was probably a story there.

Carolina  _ really _ didn’t want to know. 

“Howdy.” York greeted them, grinning wide and the scarring around his left eye crinkling in the process. “What brings you two here?”

“Get out of the way, York.” South replied, pushing past him and into the chaos that was happening within the apartment itself. 

Carolina sighed, gave York a quiet hello, and followed South in.

The apartment was packed. There were two people— one of which Carolina recognized to be Kai, dressed in skimpy police officer uniforms who were arguing over a game of twister. South paid it no mind, choosing to make off for the kitchen in the hopes that she'd be able to track her brother down instead of being stuck standing around with Carolina. 

“He’s in his room, I think.” York said, hanging over her shoulder as she followed Carolina back in. The door had been closed, and locked as well. “Since I’m assuming you’re looking for Wash.” 

Carolina let out a breath and turned to look at York directly. “Thanks for letting me come along.” 

“It’s no problem.” York said. “As long as you’re able to keep up and don’t throw off the fun, you’re welcome.” There was a pause, where York eyed her for a moment. “Besides, Wash likes you so I wasn’t going to go ahead and ignore that you’re seeing him. I’m not a monster.” 

“Still.” Carolina said, casting a glance around the apartment and taking in some of the chaos. “I appreciate it.” 

York snorted. “Show me you  _ appreciate _ it by making Wash have some fun.” There was a pause, and York gestured down a hallway. “Go say hi.” 

Carolina rolled her eyes and slipped away, just as York was being called to by Kai and the man in the skimpy police officer costume. She walked down the little hallway with the three doors in it where she knew she’d find Wash, probably in his own room. 

She knocked on Wash’s door, and waited. 

“What, York?” Wash called through, not bothering to check who it was. 

“It’s Carolina.” Carolina called back, and within seconds she heard him scrambling over to the door and unlocking it so that she could be let in. 

He pulled the door open and Carolina saw that he was dressed in a grey onesie that had a hood with cat ears on it. His expression also lit up the second that he saw her. “You made it.” 

“I texted you to tell you I made it.” Carolina said, following Wash’s gesture that invited her into the bedroom. 

“And I texted you back, but—”

Carolina reached into her pocket and found that there was indeed one message waiting for her, and it was only warning about what scene she was about to meet once she came in. 

“Officer hot pants?” Carolina asked, giving Wash a  _ look _ .

Wash sighed and sat down on his bed, which left Carolina the desk chair for herself. “It’s a yearly contest between Kai and Donut. It used to be a costume contest, now it’s the world’s dumbest olympics. I feel my brain cells degenerating every time it happens. In slow motion.” 

“I guess that's meant to explain the twister?” Carolina asked, crossing one leg over the other. 

Wash snorted. “Yeah, it is.” He said quietly. “Do you want to go and join the party, or—”

She considered his question. In truth she really wouldn’t have  _ minded _ the chance to join in with the party but Carolina also couldn’t really help the feeling that Wash  _ really _ didn’t seem like he wanted to be around it. Maybe it had to do with the amount of skin that was being shown, but Carolina had a feeling it could have been something else. 

Maybe the number of people, or the amount of noise. 

That certainly could have been it. 

She locked eyes with his. “What do you want to do?” 

Wash shrugged. “Well, you’re here now so I guess I wouldn’t mind going out.” 

“Then we’ll do that.” She stood up and smoothed her costume dress down so that it looked a little bit less wrinkled. 

Wash followed Carolina out into the hallway, and then into the kitchen so that she could at least get a good idea of what the spread for the evening was. 

North was there, in the process of cutting a bag of fun sized candy open with a pair of scissors even though he could have ripped it open just as easily. It took Carolina a long moment to realize that he was wearing a beekeeper’s suit as a costume. The only thing that really even was there to reveal that fact was the mesh helmet that had been set aside on one of the kitchen stools. 

“Hey, North.” Wash said as the two came in. “Getting the candy ready for the trick or treaters?”

“Yeah, I am.” North replied, turning to face them both. “Not that I really think it’ll survive getting out the door. Figured we could at least try.” 

Carolina snorted. “Worried about people grazing?” 

“Nah.” North laughed. “Yearly tradition is that once Grif shows up, the candy bowl out front tends to disappear. This is the backup bowl that goes out  _ after _ that’s already happened.” 

“Grazing is also a problem.” North added. “Just not the biggest one.” 

Wash leaned over and snatched two candies out of the bowl. North gave him a quick dirty look, but only waved Wash away. 

It was then that Carolina realized something. 

“I brought something for the uh—”

“The jungle juice?” North asked. “Talk to York about it before he’s too far gone for the night.” 

Wash sighed. “I’ll get him.” With that he left the kitchen and Carolina was left alone with North for the minute. 

North offered her the candy bowl. Carolina smiled and took two candies which she quickly tucked away in her pockets for later. They were just some small packets of skittles, but that was all that she really saw herself wanting anyways. 

He set the bowl back down. “Thanks for coming.” 

“It’s not a problem.” Carolina shrugged. “Doesn’t seem like the worst party I’ve been to.” 

“Yeah, that's because not everyone is here yet.” North laughed quietly. “And everyone's relatively sober at the moment.” The tall man leaned back against the counter, bracing himself against it with his long arms. Carolina hadn’t realized just how  _ big _ North was until exactly that moment. 

Carolina snorted. “If what Wash told me about the…”

“The Jungle Juice.” 

“The Jungle Juice.” Carolina echoed, “once that's being served the sobriety won’t last too long.” 

“Yeah…” North glanced towards the living room, almost nervously. “It’s honestly a miracle nobody’s ended up in the ER yet because of it. Stuff tends to be pretty potent once everything is over and done with.”

“Sure does.” York interjected as he slipped into the kitchen, bumping into North intentionally as he got out a large punch bowl that looked like it might have been an antique. “Just how daddy likes it.” 

North’s face reddened. “Why do you have to say it like that?” 

“Because it fucks with you.” York replied as he began to rifle through the collection of bottles that had been brought along. “Wash, can you grab the fruit?” 

Wash slid past all three of them to go to the fridge, where there was a plate of assorted pieces of cut fruit. At first glance, all that Carolina could make out were sliced strawberries and little chunks of kiwi. Wash slid in at Carolina’s side and set down the plate, which York immediately took and unceremoniously dumped into the punch bowl. South’s container of pineapple went in, and eventually York was ripping apart her limes to toss the slices in by hand. 

Carolina slid back away from York, just to give York some room. 

She felt Wash’s arm slide around her waist. It was new, but oddly comfortable. 

Carolina couldn’t really see herself complaining about it, at least. 

“Don’t drink it.” Wash whispered into her ear. “Please. When North says it’s a miracle nobody has ended up in the emergency room because of that stuff he means it.” 

“Noted.” Carolina replied with a little snort. She knew her own limits, but if others didn’t then there wasn’t a whole lot that could be done for it. 

York though was taking his time going through what he added to the mix carefully. “They’re just saying that.” He said. “People do get cut off when they’ve had too much, thank you very much. I had my stomach pumped  _ once _ and I never want myself or anyone else to go through that again. I am a  _ responsible _ host.” 

Carolina and Wash both blinked. North had a vague look of  _ alarm _ on his face that probably wasn’t going to be going away anytime soon. 

York looked between the rest of them though, with this expression his face that said  _ gotcha _ .

Wash blinked. “You wanna explain that?”

“Hm?” York asked, beginning to pour some of Carolina’s vodka into the mix. “Not a really interesting story. Point is, I’m keeping my eye on all of you. And when I cut you off, you’re done.” 

And yeah, that was one  _ hell _ of a thing to gloss over in such a way. 

York waved them all off though. “I’ll let you all know when its ready. Don’t worry about it.” 

Wash gently tugged Carolina’s arm. “We’ll go say hi to Kai and Donut,” He said, and Carolina could guess that he was  _ desperately _ looking for an out so that they could get out of the awkward conversation. “See how the contest is going.” 

“Please do.” York said. “I left them without a judge to do this. They might want someone to let them know who’s winning.”

“Got it!” Carolina said as the two of them made a swift exit. 

Wash was tense, so tense that Carolina had a feeling that he  _ really _ wanted to be back in his own room watching a movie. Somewhere that wasn’t where they were, at least. Carolina gently tugged him aside and into the hallway because of the relative privacy that it could provide. 

“Wash?” Carolina asked him. “Are you okay?”

“Uh, yeah.” Wash said, casting a glance back towards the kitchen and living room. “Sorry. This party’s always just… a lot.” 

“I think I got that.” Carolina replied. “You know we can hang out somewhere private if you want? I’m not going to be upset.” 

Wash seemed to consider it, glancing back to the other party goers himself as he he considered the question. A part of Carolina  _ sincerely _ hoped that he’d let himself have some space, but she wasn’t entirely hopeful that he would do that for himself. Not when he’d just told York that he’d say hi to some other people first. 

“Maybe in a few minutes.” He answered her, with an awkward shake of his head. “Maybe if we join in this will start being…”

“Fun?”

“Fun.” 

With that Wash led the way and the two of them were on their way out to the living room so that they could see everyone else that had joined there. 

The game of twister looked like it was about to start its second round. South had stretched herself out on the couch and was enjoying a bag of chips that she’d scrounged up somewhere. She was  _ also _ eyeing Kai like she wanted to eat her. 

Carolina would  _ gladly _ stay out of that nonsense. 

As soon as South noticed her and Wash though, she sat up properly and gave Wash and Carolina the room that the two of them needed to sit on the couch. 

The blonde looked between the two of them. “You two having run?”

“Not really.” Wash admitted. 

Kai turned towards them. The front of her police officer’s shirt had been left unbuttoned to display a bra which had  _ definitely _ been altered herself. At least, the toy officer’s badges that had been glued onto the breasts made it seem as such. “Yeah, because he’s a cop.” Kai said as she approached Wash. “He can’t have fun.” 

Wash rolled his eyes. “And I should have you know that impersonating an officer is an arrestable offence, Officer—” His voice trailed off as he looked to the other person in a cop costume. “Well, since he’s Officer Hot Pants this year, I’m going to go with Grif?” 

Kai’s mouth dropped open in some offence, only for her expression to twist back into a smile as she relaxed. “Well looks like you’re actually going to be fun tonight!”

“I’m fun!”

“Not usually, Wash.” York’s voice interjected as he re-entered the living room, bringing the bowl of punch that he’d just made in the kitchen with him. He set it down on the coffee table in the middle of the room while North followed closely behind carrying a bag of red solo cups and a ladle. “Besides, fun just started.” 

The other man in the police outfit, Donut, if Carolina remembered his name correctly edged himself forward all but  _ begging _ to be the first one to sample the jungle juice, as York had called it. York just filled the man’s cup before doing another for Kai, who took her own drink greedily. 

He began to fill a third cup and looked Carolina in the eyes. “Want some?”

“Yeah.” She said, reaching out for the freshly-filled glass. “Seeing as I helped contribute I might as well see what all of the fuss is about.” 

To her surprise York put on a shit eating grin as he handed it off to her. Then he looked to Wash instead. There was this momentary furrow to his brow. “Think you’re good?”

He seemed to consider it then looked to Carolina. “I’m gonna say no for now.” Wash said, which left Carolina  _ slightly _ concerned. But then again, she knew that he was probably still taking a low dose of painkillers and probably wasn’t looking to go mixing them with alcohol. “Thanks for offering.” 

“Good boy.” York handed off a cup to South. 

There was a knock at the door. “North, can you—” York began to ask but by the time he managed to get the words out North was already gone, on his way to open the door for whoever had just arrived to the party. 

Off by the door Carolina heard some warm hellos as well as a few familiar voices.

She craned her neck just slightly so that she could see who had just arrived. Wash did the same at her side and when the new guests arrived it was none other than Grif and Simmons, who worked at the café where they'd gone for their first  _ attempted _ date. 

“Hey, Wash.” Grif said as he stepped into the living room, carrying a container of  _ something _ with him. He looked to Carolina and grinned. “So this is still going?”

“It is.” Carolina confirmed, which only made Wash’s face turn red at her side. 

If she was being honest with herself, there was something that was actually  _ cute _ about how easily he got flustered. There was absolutely nothing about Wash that Carolina could say that she didn’t like. He was sweet, even if a little goofy. 

What the hell had  _ ever _ made him interested in her, especially given how the two of them had met in the first place? 

“Hey, Dex!” Kai called from where she was once she finished her first sip of the punch for the evening. “What kept you late?”

“Simmons took too long in the shower.” Grif said matter of factly, which made the tall redhead at his side straighten and almost seem to lock up for a second. It almost looked like he was about to start trying to stammer out a defense, even. 

Kai snorted. “Lame. York’s already made drinks.” 

“Thank fuck.” Grif muttered before making his way to the kitchen to deliver the food that he’d brought with him. Simmons followed after, also carrying a container of food although at first Carolina could tell that it had been  _ labeled.  _ Not just with what the dish was, but also with allergens.

Carolina looked to Wash again, just to be sure that he was indeed comfortable with where the two of them were and what they were doing. He looked back at her and shrugged before he allowed himself to relax back into the couch. Soon enough the two of them were drinking along with everyone else, and then they managed to just enjoy the rest of the night as it went. 

* * *

Time really started to fly by at a certain point. When people decided that it was time to play games, they played their games and Carolina and Wash laughed along with them. 

But then it started to get late, and one by one the party goers began to leave. Most left in cabs or by getting rides through any of their various ride share apps, and then by the end Carolina found herself standing in a hallway with South as the two of them tried to negotiate how they’d get home. 

The truth of the matter was that York’s punch had only managed to get stronger and stronger as the night had passed. Nobody was left in that apartment that were in anything close to a suitable state to drive. 

Carolina was pretty certain that she was either staying the night with Wash, or she was getting a cab and then returning in the morning when she’d gotten a chance to sober up. 

“Look, I’ll pay you back in the morning.” Carolina argued with South. “But I can’t drive you.” 

“Well I don’t want to stay here.” South muttered. “You don’t  _ know _ what’s going to happen.” 

Carolina grumbled. “Will you just take the goddamned cab?”

“You’re going to pay me back for it?” 

“Yeah.” 

South reached into her pocket to get out her phone, which left Carolina to figure out what she was doing. She stepped away from the hallway and headed towards the kitchen where she was pretty sure that was where she was going to find Wash.

She didn’t find Wash. 

What she found instead was North, with his ass pressed up against a counter with York against his chest, the two of them locked in a fevered kiss. One of North’s hands had slipped down into York’s shorts rather conspicuously, groping at the man’s ass while the two of them got closer and closer to each other. His fingers stuck out alongside the pockets.

It occurred to Carolina  _ immediately _ that she had seen something that she wasn’t meant to. She backed out of the kitchen and back into the hallway where Wash had just stepped out of the bathroom. 

“Uh…” He said. “Is everything—”

“I think I Just saw something—” Carolina replied, staring Wash in the face instead of even allowing herself to look back at the kitchen. 

Wash blinked, and Carolina watched him pale for just a moment. “Oh, uh…” He gently caught her by the wrist. “Come on.” 

Carolina followed along behind him until the two of them were in his bedroom. Wash paced the room for just a minute, and then looked back at her. “It was North and York, right?”

“Yeah.” Carolina confirmed, keeping her voice down on the uncomfortable chance that they could be overheard. “I shouldn’t have—”

Wash seated himself at his desk in a rolling chair. “It happens every year.” He said instead. “Just… leave them to it.” There was a long pause. “So…”

Carolina blinked. “I needed to ask you something.”

Wash raised an eyebrow but looked up to her anyways. “What kind of something?” 

Carolina watched him, not sure that what she was about to ask was too much. They’d been dating for a few months, so surely asking for a place to crash for the night couldn’t have been so bad? Right? 

That was how normal relationships were meant to work, right? 

She sighed. “I don’t think I’m good to drive.” Carolina began to explain.

All at once, Carolina watched the realization dawn on his face. Wash nodded along slowly, clearly in understanding. “Did you… want to stay the night?”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “Or at least until I’m sober enough to drive again.” 

“I’ve got a bed.” 

“You do.” Carolina confirmed, suddenly all too aware that it was right there. “Or I could use the couch—”

“No, no—” Wash began to protest. “It’s okay. We can share, I mean…”

“We have been dating.” 

“Yeah.” 

Carolina smiled up at him. “Thanks, Wash.” 

“It’s no problem.” He replied, blushing. “Besides, I’m assuming you probably didn’t want to have to call an uber twice just to make sure that you could get your car later anyways.” 

“Yeah, that was…” Carolina’s voice trailed off. “This is really awkward.” 

“Yup.” Wash confirmed, popping on the P. “So should we get ready to go to bed, or…”

Carolina blinked. “I don’t know?” She replied. “We could if we wanted to.” 

Wash sighed. “It is pretty late.” He stood up straight and shrugged out of the costume that he’d been wearing to reveal that he was wearing a simple t-shirt and a pair of sweat pants underneath. “Are you going to want something more comfortable, or—”

Carolina glanced down at herself. She really didn’t  _ love _ the idea of going to bed in jeans. She also didn’t love the idea of going to bed in a halloween costume either. 

“If you could, it'd be nice.” 

“Yeah, sure.” Wash got up and walked over to his dresser. Carolina seated herself on top of his bed and waited, watching as he removed a t-shirt and a set of pajama pants for her to use for the night. He piled them one on top of the other before he approached her and held them out in a small stack. “These should fit, right?” 

Carolina rolled her eyes and took the bundle. “I’m only a few inches shorter than you.” She teased him. “I’m going to go and change.”

“Sure.” Wash said. “I’ll… be in here.”

Carolina gave him one last look, just to be sure that she wasn’t leaving things too awkwardly before she slipped across the hall where she made herself at home in the surprisingly clean bathroom. Especially given the number of people that had been in and out of it over the course of the evening, that it was still clean and intact was almost a  _ miracle. _

She set the borrowed pajamas down on top of the sink and started by stripping off the cheap halloween costume. It dropped down to the floor where it was soon joined by Carolina’s pants, bra, and shirt. 

Lastly Carolina took a moment just to wash her face and get some of her makeup off before she took her hair down from the ponytail that it had been over the course of the night. If she was going to be sleeping there, then she wanted to be  _ comfortable _ when she did it, dammit. 

Dressed and ready for bed, Carolina stared at her own reflection in the mirror and realized that she didn’t know how the night was going to go. There was already something so intimate about being there, about sharing Wash’s bed, about wearing his clothes. Something that she hadn’t been wholly prepared for when she’d gone over that night. 

What happened if the rest of the night ended up being a mess? 

Or if she ended up having to head out earlier in the morning than either of them would have liked? 

Was she going to be able to downplay that awkwardness enough to see Wash again after?

Carolina shook her head and turned the sink on, letting the cool water run for a moment and shoving her hands under the water so that she could splash her face. She just needed to relax. That was all that she needed to do. She could relax, she just had to take a moment to breathe. 

Her reflection stared back at her, with her father’s vibrant green eyes. 

She couldn’t hide from Wash forever. 

Carolina grabbed up her clothes, opened the door, and flicked the light off before she went back across the hall to Wash’s room. She hovered just outside the door and knocked quietly, just in case Wash was changing himself. 

“Come in.” He called from the other side. 

Carolina sighed and gently pushed the door open. 

Wash had changed into a clean set of pajamas, despite the fact that he’d already been wearing pajamas earlier. He was sitting on his bed, legs stretched out in front of him as he fiddled with his phone with one hand. 

“Hey.” Carolina greeted him, closing the door behind her. She found a clean spot on the dresser and set her own clothes down. They just had to be there for the night, and she wasn’t exactly inclined to just leave them on the floor. 

“They fit.” Wash said, blinking as he looked up at her. “I’m glad.”

“Yeah.” Carolina confirmed, glancing down at the too-baggy clothes. “They'll do the job.” 

There was a long pause, where neither of them knew what to do. But Wash edged himself in closer to the wall and left the space open for Carolina to slide in beside him. So she approached the bed, sat down on the edge, and for the first time since she and Wash had started dating, Carolina laid beside him.

He was warm at her side, and despite his bed being slightly lumpy, Carolina  _ was _ able to make herself comfortable. There was some shuffling pillows around as the two of them arranged themselves into the most comfortable position possible, but soon enough the two had managed to settle. 

Carolina turned onto her side as Wash reached over her to click off the lamp on his desk. The room settled into darkness, with the only sounds able to be heard being the sound of music coming from one of the other rooms, and also each other's breathing.

“So…” Wash began to speak, adjusting his position slightly. “What’d you think of the party?”

“it was certainly something.” Carolina replied. “Not quite as bad as I’d been built up for though.” 

“Oh.” He let out an awkward laugh. “Should I apologize for that?” 

“No.” Carolina laughed in response. “I think it just made the night easier for me in the end. I was expecting a disaster.” 

He snorted. “It’s always a disaster.” 

“Seemed fine to me.” Carolina said truthfully. “I mean… nobody died. Nobody had to go to the hospital. I don’t think that it went anywhere near as bad as it could have.”

All at once, Wash seemed to deflate a little bit. “I guess that you have a point there.” He said quietly, apparently still not comfortable if the way that he was tossing and turning was meant to be any indicator. 

Carolina sighed but nudged herself in close to Wash. He stiffened for just a second before he relaxed into how close the two of them were. Carolina’s eyes were barely slipping shut when she felt Wash tap her shoulder. She picked her head up and saw that he was re-arranging himself so that she could rest her head on his chest if she wanted to. 

“Is this such a good idea?” Carolina teased as she took Wash’s invitation all the same. “With your arm all banged up?”

“Should be fine.” Wash snorted. “Thanks for the concern though.” 

“Don’t mention it.” Carolina pulled the blankets up around the two of them and finally began to settle, slowly but surely. Wash did the same, but Carolina couldn’t help but find herself acutely aware of the closeness, of Wash’s smell and warmth and how nice it was to just  _ be _ there with him. 

When she’d met him, she hadn’t been looking for a relationship.

And yet, there she was.

There they were.


	9. The One Where They Sleep Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the one where they fuck. Hope you guys like it.

Carolina woke up at the same time that she always did, which was an annoyingly early 5:15 in the morning. It was a part of her routine that worked  _ very _ well when she was trying to get into the showers before any of her bunk mates could, especially since they also got up early as well. 

But it was far less convenient when it was 5:15 in the morning, she was over at Wash’s place, and she didn’t know what she was supposed to do with herself until he got up— whenever that would end up being. 

At her side, Wash was snoring quietly. Quietly enough that it wasn’t about to be heard outside of his room, but just loud enough that she could hear him. 

Waking him up would be rude. 

It would also be rude to get up to go and make herself at home in the living room. She didn’t know York or North  _ quite _ well enough to think that she was going to be able to get away with using the kitchen to make the two of them breakfast either. So Carolina forced herself to lie there, wishing that she could get up to go and get her phone off of the dresser where she’d left it overnight. 

The hours ticked by though, and eventually she found herself at the point where she couldn’t just lay there in bed anymore. She carefully pried herself from Wash’s arms and slipped out of bed and then out of the room entirely so that she could head to the bathroom. 

The apartment seemed to be thankfully quiet, so she had to guess that North and York were still asleep. If that was indeed the case, then she supposed that was a good thing. It wasn’t as though it was a weekday so the odds that either of them were away at work was low. 

If It had been a weekday, she wouldn’t have been there at all. She would have forced herself to take a cab home like South had, and then she would have had to do the same to get back so that she could pick up her car before going to the gym.

In truth, she probably wouldn’t have even gone to the party like she had. She would have stayed back at base and went to bed at a reasonable hour. 

But since it was early, Carolina could afford to take a few minutes to clean herself up. She wasn’t going to bother with the shower until she was back at base, but she could clean her face at the very least. She took a few minutes there in the washroom before she was slipping back into the room where Wash had woken up in her absence.

Carolina closed the door behind her, and it latched with a quiet  _ click. _

“Good morning.” She greeted Wash. “I didn’t mean to wake you up.” 

He let out a hum, still clearly tired. “It’s okay.” He mumbled. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah.” Carolina said as she returned to bed. “Everything’s fine.” 

“And you slept okay?”

“Yes, Wash.” Carolina said as she eased herself back into the bed for real, squishing herself in against Wash just like she had been before she couldn’t stand laying in bed while needing to pee anymore. “I promise, nothing’s wrong.” 

A slight smile crossed onto his expression. “Good.” He said as he curled himself in around her. “I’m glad.” 

Carolina smiled and got comfortable, glad that the two of them were able to just share the space as they were. It was  _ nice. _ It was so damn nice. It made her wonder why the two of them hadn’t decided to try and sleep together any sooner. 

Wash’s arm found its way around her waist, and Carolina let her fingers drift down to brush against the limb. There were some bumps and ridges of scar tissue along the way, but nothing that she could consider alarming, all things considered. Just the normal wear and tear of a normal life. 

Normal was a good thing, as dull as it could often be. She liked normal.

He pressed in closer behind her, and soon Carolina could feel the slightest ghost of his breath against the nape of her neck as the two of them spooned together. And  _ god _ was it nice to have him there. Carolina turned herself just enough so that she could look at his face as the two of them cuddled together. 

Wash looked down at her, eyes both tired and focused entirely on her. 

He was so  _ close _ .

Carolina pushed herself upright and pressed her lips against his, freeing a hand so that she could cup Wash’s jaw and keep him close. He followed her touch and sank into the kiss himself, just as glad to have it despite the fact that they’d both gotten up and the morning breath.

When he pressed himself in closer to her, she felt the hardness that was beginning to form in his pants along with it. 

_ Oh. _

It wasn’t the  _ worst  _ idea. She certainly wouldn’t have had any problem with it, personally. 

She could already feel herself starting to get wet at the thought of it. 

And well, there were certainly  _ worse _ ways to start a day.

Carolina surged forward for another kiss, the hand that was on Wash’s jaw traveling up to lace through his sandy hair instead. Wash followed her lead, deepening the kiss and pulling away only when he realized that his hard on was pressing up against her. 

“Uh, sorry—” He began to apologize, but Carolina just made him look her in the eyes. 

His pupils were dilated. 

She was sure that hers were about doing the same thing. 

“I don’t have a problem with it.” Carolina whispered to him. “If that's what you’re worried about.” 

Wash’s face turned a deep red all at once. “You’re sure?” He asked. “Because we don’t have to.” 

Carolina kissed him once more. “I want to. If you want to.” 

“Oh.” He mumbled between kisses which he deepened, kiss after kiss after kiss. “I don’t have anything—” 

“I have an IUD.” Carolina murmured back to him, just loud enough that only Wash would ever be able to hear it. “We’ve got nothing to worry about.” 

He looked down at her, braced up above her almost awkwardly and let out an awkward little laugh. “You’re sure?”

“I’m sure!” Carolina exclaimed. It was the most awkward foreplay that she’d ever experienced, but she couldn’t be mad because she was having  _ fun. _ “Do you not want to?”

“I do!” Wash said, sitting upright instead of continuing to brace himself up over her. “I just want to be sure that we’re both—”

“i’m pretty sure we’re on the same page here, Wash.” Carolina said. “So let’s just… go?”

Wash grinned and took the space to tug his shirt up and over his head before he tossed it to the side of his bed. Carolina sat up and did the same, trying to toss it in an arc over the other side of the bed so that both of their shirts ended up in roughly the same area. 

Based on the way that Wash’s eyes had turned the size of dinner plates, she assumed that he’d forgotten that she’d gone to bed without a bra. Either that or he hadn’t realized it in the first place.

Either way, she was exposed and Wash seemed like he had absolutely no idea what he was meant to do with himself anymore. But they were both there, they were both ready for whatever was to come and Carolina fully intended on enjoying herself as much as she possibly could while the chance was there for it. 

“So.” She sat up, straight backed in a way which just  _ happened _ to put her breasts on display for Wash. “What do you think?”

“I think that I don’t don’t have any reasons to protest here.” He said quietly. “Because this is really really nice.” The way that he was looking at her made it seem like she really wanted to be able to reach out and touch her. Carolina eyed him and reached out for him with her right hand. She took his hand in hers and dragged it in towards her, pressing his palm to her breast. 

“It's okay.” She whispered to him. “Go ahead. I want you to touch.” 

Wash took his time touching her, as hesitant as he seemed to be excited by the notion of it. He rolled her breasts behind her fingers, really taking the time to feel her as much as he could before she pressed herself further into his palm. “This Is good.” He said, bringing up his other hand so that he could continue to explore. 

“Yeah, it is.” Carolina replied, surging forward to drag Wash into a kiss. He leaned into it, his hands sliding away from her breasts to settle down on her bare waist instead. They were warm and pleasant, as were Wash’s lips as they moved against her own. 

She was wet, she wanted to be out of her pants, and she wanted to be able to really see what Wash could do with the opportunity for it. 

Carolina pulled away, just enough to make sure that Wash could have a chance to breathe, if only for a moment. 

The two of them were still pressed in close, Carolina wanting to push him back in the bed and straddle him more than anything else. Wash stared across at her, his gaze never leaving her own even as he began to strip his shirt off so that he could be on the same level that Carolina was on. 

She sat back enough to make sure that Wash had the space to do everything that he needed. Wash tossed his shirt off to the side and then he was dragging her back in towards him again, their chests pressing together as they fell into yet another kiss. 

His erection was bumping into her hip through his pants, and Carolina couldn’t really ignore it. 

But god was she  _ ready. _

“C’mon.” Carolina nibbled at his lower lip playfully. “Let’s go.” 

“Yeah, okay.” Wash said as his hands slipped down to the waist of his pajama pants. He began to scramble his way out of them, and Carolina heard them fall to the floor beside the bed and she didn’t hear them. “This is such a bad idea.” 

“I don’t think so.” Carolina said as she slipped out of the pair of borrowed pants and kicked them off. They were so loose that she didn’t have to put any effort into it whatsoever. “I think it’s going to be fun.” 

“Maybe.” Wash cupped her jaw and pressed his lips against hers, his good arm wrapping around her back so that he could pull her in close to him. Carolina wrapped her arms around his neck and relaxed into his touch entirely. “So—”

“Should lay down.” Carolina mumbled into Wash’s ear. “Or something.” 

He laughed. “Yeah, or something.” And then with that he was pulling away and looking down at the bed, considering what to do next. Of course one of them was probably going to need to lay down, but it wasn’t as though the two of them had talked over what they actually planned to do. 

Carolina eyed it. “You lay down.” She said. “And take those off.” She said as she looked down at his underwear, erection tented at the front. “It’ll be fun, promise.” 

Wash raised an eyebrow and slipped out of his underwear before he was following along with what Carolina had just asked. She smiled down at him and stood up at the side of the bed just long enough to get her underwear off. 

And all at once the two of them went still and quiet as the gravity of what they were doing settled over the two of them all at once.

It was real. 

It was  _ happening. _

_ Oh god, it was actually happening. _

She ended up hanging by the side of the bed for just a moment, looking down at Wash and simply taking in the sight of him because this was something that she hadn’t known that she’d wanted as much as she actually did. He looked as comfortable in his bed as he did awkward, with his skin flushed red down to his chest and a blush high on his cheeks. 

When Carolina got in close enough, she could see the pre-cum beading at the head of his cock. 

She climbed ont the bed at his side and nearly curled into his side, pressing herself in close so that she could capture his lips in her own with a kiss. His lips moved languidly against her own, a hand coming up to cup her breast once more. Carolina let a hand rest on his bare stomach, the muscle that had likely once been there having gone soft over the time that he’d been recovering from his broken arm. 

Wash’s breath hitched at the contact though, a pleasant sound that Carolina sincerely never wanted to be able to forget. If she got to hear it out of him a thousand more times, she could have been happy with her life. 

So Carolina let her hand creep downwards, over the planes of his stomach and over his wiry hair so that she could take Wash’s erection in hand. A tiny gasp escaped him and Carolina smiled as she began to pump away at him, setting an easy pace and taking it slow. 

While she ideally wanted for the night to be so much more than just a hand job, she had a feeling that she and Wash were going to be doing a lot of feeling out what was okay between the two of them before they actually were able to justify doing much of anything else. 

“God—” Wash began to grit out as his eyes slipped shut. “Carolina—” One of his legs began to raise just slightly, him drawing it in closer to the rest of his body and letting his foot rest on the bed. It only seemed to be an attempt to make himself even more comfortable. 

“Take it easy, Wash.” Carolina teased, palming over the head of his cock. “This is meant to be a good time.” 

“It is.” He replied. “But I can’t really say that this was what I had in mind when you told me to lay own here like—”

A devilish grin split her expression. “What did you think would be happening?” She teased him. “Since it seems like you have some sort of idea.” 

“You.” Wash replied, reaching down to catch her wrist and still her hand. “On top of me.” 

“What else?”

“Riding me.” Wash said as she sat up properly, wiping off some of the beaded pre-cum that had ended up on her hand onto the sheets instead. “Letting me touch you while you do it.” 

And yeah, Carolina wasn’t going to pretend as though that _wasn’t_ exactly what she’d had in mind herself. 

She grinned down at Wash and let her hands rest on his stomach for just a moment, relishing in the warmth before she went ahead and slung one leg over him so that she could straddle Wash properly. Keeping her hands on him helped her hold herself stable as she righted herself and looked down at the man that was now beneath her. 

He was staring up at her like he was seeing some sort of god. Like she was the single best thing that he had ever experienced over the course of his entire life. Carolina wasn’t exactly going to protest that thought, but the two of them hadn’t really gotten started yet and she wanted to keep some of the main excitement for when the two of them had had  _ actually _ gotten going. 

“Are you ready?” Carolina asked, reaching back so that she could stroke his cock one more time. She was pretty sure that she was ready for what was about to come. But she needed for Wash to say it, she needed to know that the two of them were in the same place, on the same page, both as nervous and excited for it as she felt. 

“Yeah.” Wash gasped out. “I think so.” One of his hands came up towards her so that it could rest on the curve of her waist. “You sure we’re good?”

“I am if you are.” Carolina replied. “Are we good?”

Wash let out a nervous little laugh, the awkwardness of the encounter seeming to catch up with him all at once. “Yeah, we’re good.”

Carolina leaned down to press her lips to Wash’s. “Okay.” She whispered against them. “Okay.” 

And with that she was reaching back, taking Wash’s cock in hand and raising herself up over it. She pressed down just slightly, feeling it tease at her entrance before she lowered herself down onto it properly. She took her time, since the last thing that she wanted to do was rush either of them with the act. 

Wash’s breath hitched over the contact though, his eyes sliding shut for just a moment before she was settling, their hips almost meeting. 

One of his hands rested on her hip, warm and strong and comfortable where it was placed. Carolina rested her hands on his chest, just to be sure that she would be able to catch herself and keep her balance if she found herself needing it. 

With every movement, Wash was going deeper and deeper until their hips were able to meet properly. Carolina wanted so badly to lean forward, to catch another kiss from him but at the same time she didn’t want to risk losing him or their closeness. She didn’t want to deal with the trouble of him slipping out of him, anyways. 

“Good?” She asked, rocking her hips and setting a rhythm that way. 

“Amazing.” Wash groaned out, awkward, wide grin on his face. “Fucking amazing.” 

A little laugh escaped Carolina as she quickened the pace between the two of them, doubling down and relaxing into the movements. When Wash’s thrusts came to meet her own motions, Carolina let herself match his pace and ride it out. 

His hand traveled up and down her waist, smoothing over her skin before it found its way down into the space between them. Before Carolina had even realized what was actually happening in that moment, he was pressing his fingers to her clit. 

The noise that escaped her was too loud, and she didn’t have a chance to stop herself from letting it out. She clamped a hand over her mouth, all too aware that York and North were just a room away from the two of them. She didn’t want for them to be heard, but there it was. 

“Yeah.” Wash awkwardly pushed himself upright so that he could be closer to her. Carolina shifted her weight to allow for it, and smiled when Wash’s arms were wrapping around him. “It’s okay.” He said, sliding his fingers against her clit and making her squeal at the sensation. “They won’t care.” 

Carolina pressed her face into Wash’s shoulder, using him to muffle her own noises as the two of them continued to move together. 

“Wash.” She gasped into his ear. “Let me lay down.” She didn’t  _ know _ whether or not he would want the change in position that she did, but she hoped that he’d work with her. He nodded along, whispering quietly “okays” to her all the while. 

His arms loosened around her, and then Carolina had the space that she needed to slide off of his cock. The sudden loss was about the  _ worst _ thing that she’d felt in a long time. Carolina kissed Wash slowly, reaching down to stroke his now-slick cock as the two of them awkwardly moved around each other. 

But they made the room for her to lie down on her back. Wash watched as she got comfortable, even swallowing hard enough that Carolina could see the bob of his adam’s apple in his throat. He was just as ready to finish up as she was, by the way that things seemed. 

“Alright.” She mumbled, drawing her legs up and letting her knees rest together. “I’m ready.”

Wash knelt down by her feet, his eyes traveling over her body like he had a thousand ideas coming together in his mind. Maybe even ideas for what they could do on another occasion, when there was something else that they wanted. 

“So.” Wash said, his hands resting on her thighs. “Are you ready?”

“ _ Yes.” _ Carolina bit back as the hands slid upwards towards her knees, coming together as he gently pushed them apart. She went with the motion and opened her legs. Finding a proper position took a slight amount of maneuvering on Wash’s part, but soon enough he was sliding back into her and Carolina couldn’t help the needy moan that escaped her with it. 

“Oh fuck.” Carolina moaned out as Wash began to thrust into her. The new pace that he set was slow and deep. 

It was so easy to just fall into it. 

Carolina didn’t know exactly what it was that brought the orgasm on, whether it was the thrusts, or his fingers at her clit, or the way that he would kiss and nibble at her neck. 

It crashed over her, Carolina letting out a gasp as his hips began to still against her own, spilling inside of her. 

She wrapped her arms around Wash’s shoulders and held him in close to her, as close as she could possibly manage. They laid together like that for a minute, and when Wash chose to pull out of her Carolina was almost immediately preparing to get up so that she could get herself cleaned up. 

“Where are you going?”

“Bathroom.” Carolina said as she slid on her underwear. She could feel his cum dripping out of her. “I’ll be back.” 

He stared at her for a moment and then what she meant seemed to dawn on him all at once. “Oh.” He said before he was getting out of bed himself. “I’ve got—” He pulled on his own boxers as he went over to his closet and opened it up, pulling down a clean towel from the shelf inside. He turned towards her and tossed it in Carolina’s direction. 

She caught it easily and immediately began to do what she could to clean herself up with just the towel. “Thanks.” Carolina said to him. “I am still going to need to go to the bathroom in a minute though.”

“Get a shower in.” Wash replied as he sat back down on the bed. “Right?”

“Right.” Carolina said. It was probably better to spare Wash some of the details. “So…”

What the hell were the two of them even supposed to talk about? Was there supposed to be some sort of playbook? Some sort of script that Carolina had conveniently missed at some point. 

“That was fun.” Wash said, clearly feeling just as weird about it as Carolina did. “I wouldn’t mind it happening again sometime.”

“Neither would I.” Carolina answered him truthfully. “It was a good time.” 

“Right?” Wash laughed as he drew in close to her, wrapping his arms around her. When Carolina looked down, the cast was still there. How was she supposed to ever miss it? How could he ever still want her after what had happened, how they had met? Carolina rested her hands on Wash’s, trying her best to ignore the cast. “You had fun?”

“I did!” Carolina replied. “I just want to be able to get cleaned up now that it’s done.” 

“Nothing personal?”

“Really nothing personal.” Carolina replied. “I’m sure that you probably wouldn’t mind getting a chance for a shower yourself either.”

“I wouldn’t mind.” Wash said. “Do you want me to check first or…”

Carolina smirked. “I think that I can handle it.” She was being completely honest about it too, and she wanted for Wash to know that she felt comfortable in his space. The only thing that was questionable was the fact that his roommates were probably still home. 

“You sure?” He asked, pulling away to get another two towels down. He offered her one of them. “I’m guessing you don’t want to use that one?”

Carolina took the towel gratefully. “Thank you, Wash.” She said smiling. “I’ll try to make it quick.” 

“Take as long as you need.” Wash mumbled, pressing a kiss to her lips. “I’ll still be here when you’re done.” 

Carolina smiled at him, and then she slipped off to the shower so that she could clean herself up and relax before everything that was to come.

* * *

It was nearly an hour later when Carolina and Wash had both gotten the chance to clean themselves up. With her hair at least partially dried off, Carolina and Wash went out to the kitchen in the hopes that they would be able to acquire something to eat for breakfast. 

North was there in the kitchen already, poking at a piece of bacon with the end of his spatula while York sat at the kitchen table, staring mutely at the coffee pot that was currently in the process of percolating.

Nobody said so much as a word to each other, and Carolina was overcome with how  _ awkward  _ it was to be there with Wash’s roommates. Wash’s roommates who had almost  _ definitely _ overheard the two of them, if the atmosphere in the kitchen was meant to be any sort of indicator. 

If it hadn’t been for the fact that North and York had been up to the  _ exact same thing _ the night before, Carolina would have almost felt bad. 

Ten minutes later, North was serving plates for four and York was desperately pouring himself a mug of coffee. 

Carolina and Wash at their breakfast, but coming up with any sort of small talk to engage in was  _ hard. _

Ultimately, Carolina decided to leave at around noon. 

Wash walked to her car alongside her, only planning to say bye for the day.

“I’ll see you around.” Carolina said as she strapped herself into the driver's seat. Wash hovered by the window at her side. “This was fun.” 

“Yeah.” Wash said, looking back at the apartment. “Sorry about—”

“It’s fine.” Carolina cut him off. “I’ve got to get back to base. I’ll text you, okay?”

“Right.” Wash said and then he was leaning in towards her, catching her lips against his own as he leaned In towards the driver's window. Carolina almost wanted to tease him over it, but she just let herself melt into the contact. “I’ll be looking forward to it.” He mumbled against her skin.

“I know.” Carolina replied. “Soon.” 

“Soon.” Wash repeated, taking a step back and away from the car. Carolina started it, checked for sure that nobody was there or too close to the vehicle, and then she drove off back towards base. 

Almost as soon as she was on the road, she was missing him again. But there was something wrong, something brewing in the back of her mind. 

Something that she couldn’t just shake.


	10. The One Where They Get Together For Real

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's an inherent problem with whirlwind romances.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided to post this a little bit earlier than I was supposed to. 
> 
> Thank you all for sticking along with this fic for so long and for your patience between the updates. Your comments have all been so lovely and I'm grateful for every single one of them.

Carolina didn’t know the exact moment where it happened, but her stresses over Wash came to a head all at once. She  _ liked _ him. She liked him a lot and in the end that was most, it not all, of the problem. The wave of doubt came all at once, and then after that there wasn’t much else left. 

She didn’t think that he was interested in her out of obligation, certainly not for sex alone.

But they’d hooked up at a party, and so the seed was planted and Carolina had nothing to nip the concerns in the bud. 

Without answers or solutions, she floundered. 

It started small. Carolina ignored Wash’s first text to her, and then each additional one drove the stake of how badly she was  _ fucking everything up _ deeper and deeper. 

Carolina had her reasons. They weren’t logical, but they were  _ hers. _ They were real.

She just didn’t know what to do. 

Mostly, she regretted sleeping with him. It wasn’t that it hadn’t been good— it had been  _ wonderful _ . Maybe even too good. It was that it came with a new expectation of closeness that Carolina wasn’t entirely sure that she was able to follow up on or even give in to. There was a reason that she didn’t tend to date a lot. 

After all, if she was being  _ completely _ honest with herself, how much did she actually  _ know _ about Wash? It didn’t feel like a whole lot, and she felt like he knew even less about her. They’d skipped over so much of the getting to know you process that it left Carolina floundering. A rushed relationship. A rotten core. A shaky foundation. Perhaps fixable, but perhaps not.

After all, if she and Wash were dating, then shouldn’t she know things like when his birthday was? His favorite color? The names of his siblings and how many he had? Shouldn’t he have known that she had a brother, and a father, and a mother who had died when she was young? Weren’t those all details that were fairly  _ significant  _ to know? Things that he’d need to know if their relationship was going to work? Things that  _ she _ needed to know? 

She’d rushed into something, and she’d done so stupidly to the point where she almost wanted nothing to do with it since she’d slept with Wash. They’d both needed more time, and Carolina just  _ didn’t know what she was supposed to do. _

After two days, ignoring texts turned into leaving her phone behind when she went to do things, or turning it off entirely. She didn’t need her phone on when she went to the gym or running, and she didn’t need it on after she went to bed. 

The idea of turning it on and having to  _ talk _ to Wash about what she was feeling was just too scary, too far out of her depth for her liking. 

But then again, Carolina realized that it was an act of self-sabotage in an odd way. She was giving Wash a reason to not to want to continue to pursue a relationship. Maybe she’d turn on her phone again and she wouldn’t even  _ have _ to talk to him.

As things stood, she was ghosting him, and it was awful and shitty and she shouldn’t have done it. 

But she did it anyways because she just didn’t know what else she was meant to do.

* * *

“Hey,” South said as Carolina walked into their shared room on a day midway through November. “Want to do me a favor?”

Carolina eyed the other woman, setting her things down on the little table beside her bed. Her phone went face-down. “I think that it will depend on what you’re going to ask me to do.” 

“Call Wash,” South grit out. “Apparently he's been complaining to my brother nonstop. And look, North is too nice for his own good and always has been. I’m not. Talk to your fucking boyfriend so he’ll leave everyone else alone. I’m sick of fucking hearing about it.”

South left the room, heading off to catch a shower for herself. 

Without any other option, Carolina called Wash and asked him to join her at Redd’s for coffee.

It was better than nothing, she supposed.

As terrifying as it was.

She left the message as a voicemail because he didn’t pick up.

The gap between them widened.

* * *

Being left in the dark for days that turned into two weeks left a bad taste in Wash’s mouth. Carolina had promised to call him, and had ripped it out from under him just as fast. 

He hadn’t known what to do with himself. After all, it felt like he’d had a good thing just taken from him before he’d even gotten a chance to realize that it was as good as it was. 

Their relationship had been  _ good. _ They’d been having  _ fun. _

Or at least he had been. He’d thought that Carolina was feeling the same things too, but with her having gone silent for as long as she had he couldn’t be sure anymore. There was a missing piece to a puzzle and Wash couldn’t figure out what it was. 

When he asked North, North gave no answers. When he asked York, all he got was an unhelpful shrug and a ‘maybe she wasn’t that into you.’ North promised to talk to South, who he hoped would talk to Carolina.

It was that series of events that had Wash sitting in York’s passenger seat as his roommate drove him out towards Redd’s so that Wash could meet Carolina, just as she'd requested. 

A large part of him couldn’t shake the feeling that the invitation had only been extended so that she could at least give him the dignity of being broken up with in person as opposed to being ignored or cut off over a text. Wash could at least appreciate the courtesy of it.

York stopped at the shopping plaza where the little coffee shop was, rolling up in front of it without much care.

“Good luck,” He said quietly, already tapping some information into his phone so that he could go off to his next job. Apparently some poor fool had locked themselves out of their car and it was York’s job to fix it. As far as Wash knew, that was  _ all _ York was doing. “I hope it goes well.” 

“Me too,” Wash sighed heavily. “I’ll let you know if I need a ride home.” 

“No promises,” York replied. “Could be a bit, depending on how hard it is to crack. I’ll try to make it quick for you though.” 

Ideally, Wash wouldn’t  _ have _ to call on York’s aid to get home, or even to get out of the shop quickly. But he just couldn’t shake that nagging feeling that Carolina was about to break up with him, and he  _ didn’t know how to handle it.  _

“Thanks, either way,” Wash said. “I guess I’m going to go in and…”

“Go in and figure things out.” York finished for him. “Get out of my car, and get in there. Better to just rip the band aid off all at once, right?” 

Wash sighed, but he did as York had asked and watched as his roommate’s work truck went off to wherever he needed to be for the day. He stood outside of the door to Redd’s for a moment too long, so nervous that the idea of opening the door almost felt like an insurmountable task to have to carry out.

But when he looked through the glass of the door, Wash saw Carolina. She sat at their usual booth, and she looked nervous about the fact that she was there too. She looked as nervous as he felt.

Well, if it was going to suck for both of them then Wash supposed that it was better to just take the plunge and go in himself.

He pulled the door open and stepped into the little coffee shop before he made a beeline for the table where Carolina was. She was checking her phone for notifications, almost impulsively. A sharp spike of anger rushed through Wash at the sight, but he pushed it down for both of their sakes. 

It was Carolina. If she did something, there was always a reason for it. 

He took his seat across from Carolina and made himself comfortable. 

“Hey,” He greeted her. “It’s… been a bit, hasn’t it?”

Carolina looked up at him with exhausted eyes and sighed before she set her phone down on the table beside her, screen down. Giving him her undivided attention. That was good at least, Wash thought. He didn’t even bother to get his own phone out of his pocket.

“Hi, Wash,” Carolina greeted him. “I’m… really sorry about all of this. I don’t really have an excuse either, which is worse.”

Oh, so they were just jumping straight into it. Wash couldn’t tell whether or not that was a good thing. On one hand, it seemed like she was just trying to get some of the more difficult things out of the way first. 

Or maybe it was just an apology.

Wash couldn’t  _ really _ tell.

“Oh, um,” He began awkwardly. “Right. Me too.” 

“Don’t apologize,” Carolina sighed. “I’m the one that has been shitty about all of this. Not you.” 

“Yeah,” Wash replied. “You have been. Shitty, I mean. And I’ve been trying to figure out why, and I can’t find an answer that makes sense,” He looked her straight in the eyes. “Can you just… tell me what I did wrong? I’d really like to know.” 

Carolina’s bright green gaze snapped away from him and down to her hands instead. They’d been folded on the table just in front of her, clutched together almost in a prayer. “That’s the thing,” Carolina sighed. “I wish I could tell you, but the truth is that you didn’t do  _ anything _ wrong. This is all on me.” 

Wash raised an eyebrow. “Care to explain?”

“I just… realized that we’ve been doing this but that I don’t actually know much of  _ anything _ about you,” Carolina replied. “And that it’s a mutual thing.” 

All at once, Wash felt his heart  _ sink _ because Carolina saying that sort of thing could only really mean bad things for him in the long run. “What are you trying to say?” Wash asked, sitting straight backed and trying to keep his cool. He knew better than to rush into things and get upset before Carolina get a chance to really say what she meant. 

Carolina gripped her coffee mug where it sat in front of her, perhaps a little too tightly if the way that the tips of her fingers were going white was meant to be any indicator. “I’m saying that you and I probably rushed into things, and I don’t know how I feel about it. I mean, who gets together because of a  _ car crash? _ That’s… insane.” 

“Oh.” 

“Yeah,” Carolina swirled her drink in her hands, staring down into its depths. She’d ordered it black. “I got scared. I’m sorry. You deserve a lot better than what I’ve given you.” 

The situation wasn’t  _ completely _ beyond salvaging then, was it?

“So what do you want to do about it?” Wash asked. “Because… I can’t say that I don’t see where you’re coming from. I thought things were fun, but we didn’t really…” His voice trailed off for a moment. “I guess we did skip a few steps.” 

Carolina swallowed. “If you’re willing to forgive me, I’d like to give it another try. But this time without rushing things or all of the awkward stuff. Less of me hitting you with my car, for instance,” Her thumbs smoothed over the white ceramic of her mug . “Maybe a proper date would be a good idea.”

“Oh,” Wash said. “Yeah, that could be fun.” 

“You… aren’t mad?” She was just as perplexed as Wash felt.

Wash hesitated. “I am,” He admitted after a moment too long. There wasn’t much use in trying to deny it, was there? With things as uneasy as they were, Wash at least wanted to try and be upfront about what he was thinking and what he was feeling. For Carolina’s sake as much for his own. “Being ghosted like that kind of sucks.” 

“I know.” 

“But—” Wash reached out and placed a hand on top of Carolina’s in an attempt to comfort her. “I want you to know that I’m willing to forgive you, because I understand why you did it. But I’m not going to pretend like I wasn’t hurt.” 

“Okay.”

Wash squeezed her hand gently. “I’m willing to give it a second try. No rushing things, like you said.” 

“You mean that?”

“Of course I do,” Wash replied. “But I want for us to try and be on the same page while we do it. Being upfront and all of that.” 

Carolina nodded along, and Wash couldn’t help but think that Carolina seemed almost like she was about to cry. “I can do that.” 

“Then we’ll try again,” Wash gave Carolina a smile. “I really like being around you. It makes me happy. Losing that isn’t something that I want to do.”

“Well, it’s certainly been less than perfect, hasn’t it?” Carolina snorted. “I feel the same way though.” 

Wash shrugged. “We don’t have to be perfect,” He said. “You do realize that, right? Functional can be enough.”

“I guess not,” Carolina replied, pensive. “You’re too good for me, Wash. Really.”

Wash snorted. “You’re about a hundred miles out of my league,” He replied. “Though I guess you hitting me with a car does take you down a few notches.”

“Only a little,” Carolina said, smiling softly. Affectionately, even. “You’re still too good for me.”

“I don’t think so,” Wash smiled. “I think we can work. If you’re willing to put in the work.”

“And I am,” Carolina looked him straight in the eye, so intense that Wash didn’t dare look away. “We'll try this again. For real.” 

“Then I guess we will,” Wash replied. “Starting with a real date.” He paused for just a moment. “Dinner sound good?”

“Dinner sounds  _ wonderful, _ ” Carolina replied, and when she let out a quiet laugh Wash was hit by just how much he loved this girl. Things were going to be tough for a little while, but he and Carolina both could handle it. 

Besides, he had a feeling that they were both going to appreciate the challenge. Never mind that Wash liked the little spot of sunshine that Carolina brought into his life. 

And really, that could be enough, at least for a little while. 

He could deal with being happy, as long as Carolina was willing to be happy with him too.

There was always room to try again, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr](https://arynasea.tumblr.com)   
>  [Twitter](https://twitter.com/hymen_opus)   
> 


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